Jesuit Father Anton T. Harris resigned Oct. 12 as Seattle University’s vice president for mission and ministry after local news media reported that he was accused of sexually harassing a 25-year-old Jesuit seminarian in the mid-1990s.
Both Jesuit universities in Washington state – Seattle University in Seattle and Gonzaga University in Spokane – have recently been in the news because of claims of sexual abuse of minors that occurred in those institutions decades ago.
Father Harris has not been accused of any misconduct with a minor, but he resigned after the Seattle Post-Intelligencer ran a front-page report that the former Jesuit seminarian, John Bollard, had reached a settlement with the order in 2000 over his complaints about homosexual overtures from Father Harris and two other Jesuits during his time in the seminary.
The case is related to an older situation, which those of you who have been (painfully) following these things might recall – a young man’s accusations about the conduct of 3 Jesuits with whom he worked at a Jesuit high school in San Francisco – he described them as engaging in what amounts to constant come-ons, verging on harassment. (He is barred by his settlement from getting too detailed, but did described the general environment in a 60 Minutes interview some years back.)
So now, years later, the current situation was prompted by the Seattle paper’s investigation into this – that one of the priests in question was a V-P in charge of campus ministry at the university.
The original Seattle P-I article
But nine years ago, when Bollard’s accusations first came to light, the priest, then working as a rector at Jesuit High School in Portland, said in a statement that he was embarrassed to learn that his personal correspondence had been made public.
Seattle University was well aware of his record when it hired him. Spokeswoman Barbara Nombalais called it "old news."
The Rev. John Whitney, superior of the Jesuits’ Oregon Province, which includes Washington state, described Harris as "an exemplary Jesuit" and said the cards, intended to be funny, were "simply a matter of poor judgment or bad taste."
Whitney noted, too, that Harris had not been in a position of authority over the young seminarian. "There wasn’t a power arrangement there," he said. "In no way was there any attempt to harass Mr. Bollard."
But Bollard, now 41 and director of an education research program at UCLA, disagrees. He said the overtures from Harris and fellow priests Andrew Sotelo and Thomas Gleeson created such a hostile work environment that he was forced to leave the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley, Calif., and abandon his boyhood dream of becoming a priest.
Still, questions dog Harris, according to a lawyer for alleged victims of clergy abuse. Two months ago, a court-appointed special master ordered Harris to testify in Seattle about an abuse case in Alaska involving another Jesuit priest.
Harris refused the order, even though he was adviser to the Oregon Province of the Society of Jesus, which includes Washington and Alaska, at the time the alleged abuse occurred, lawyer John Manly said Friday.
"The whole thing was hushed up, and that conduct bears directly on allegations of conspiracy and (doubts about) the Jesuit’s veracity," Manly said.
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