Inauguration priest resigns

University president leaves post after alcohol-fueled chat

The Jesuit priest who presided over an inaugural Mass for President Joe Biden has resigned his position as president of Santa Clara University in Northern California, college officials said, after an investigation found he engaged in inappropriate, alcohol-fueled conversations with graduate students.

Rev. Kevin O’brien, at the direction of Jesuit officials, has begun a therapeutic outpatient program to address personal issues, including alcohol and stress counseling. He had been placed on leave in March.

The university announced O’brien’s departure in a statement to the campus community Wednesday. O’brien had notified the board of his resignation Sunday and the trustees accepted it the next day.

In a letter to the university community dated Wednesday, O’brien wrote that he hopes to return to active ministry as a Jesuit priest after he completes the four- to six-month outpatient program. He did not give details about his conduct, writing only that there had been “accounts of my behavior over the past year in certain social settings with adults that did not meet the highest standards of decorum expected of me as a Jesuit.”

“After much prayer and thought and out of deep love for Santa Clara, I have concluded that the best service I can offer to our beloved university is to step aside now,“he wrote.

O’brien has known the Bidens for about 15 years; they met when he was serving at Georgetown University, another Jesuit college. He gave the service at Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in Washington in January before the inauguration ceremony at the U.S. Capitol.

Rev. Scott Santarosa, head of the Jesuits West Province that conducted the investigation, said the probe found that O’brien “engaged in behaviors, consisting primarily of conversations, during a series of informal dinners with Jesuit graduate students that were inconsistent with established Jesuit protocols and boundaries.”