Brophy Prep sends notice of possible abuse scandal

Brophy College Preparatory is warning parents and alumni that a sex-abuse scandal could be imminent.

Brophy is a private, Jesuit-run Catholic high school in central Phoenix. In a letter Tuesday, school President Adria Renke notified parents and alumni that the Jesuit order on Dec. 7 will release the names of priests credibly accused of sexual abuse of minors going back to the 1950s.

Renke wrote that the school does not yet know if any priests who served at Brophy will be named, but promised to share any names the school learns of.

“At this time we do not have the name of the priests in question, including whether any of them may have served at Brophy in past decades,” she wrote. “Once we have those names, we will share them. If at that time we determine any member of Brophy’s clergy or clergy faculty has been found to be associated with a past, credible allegation, we will move swiftly to cooperate with the investigation.”

The Jesuits West Province will announce the names. That province assigns priests to missions at Brophy and to Jesuit churches and schools across the U.S. and around the world.

Most of Arizona’s priests are diocesan priests, and not from the Jesuit order. St. Francis Xavier is Arizona’s only Jesuit parish. Brophy is the only Jesuit secondary school in Arizona.

In 2014, a judge sentenced former Brophy faculty member Dan Whitehead to one year in prison for sexually abusing students in the 1980s. Whitehead was not a priest.

In the letter, Renke wrote that she is “saddened and outraged by each new revelation and disclosure.”

She encouraged anyone who was abused by a Jesuit priest to call a victims’ advocate at 408-893-8398 or email at mppanighetti@jesuits.org.