New Orleans: Prominent ex-Jesuit employee accused of child abuse
NEW ORLEANS - A well known Jesuit brother who was employed at Jesuit High School at various points from 1940-1980 is suspected of sexual abuse.
According to a report by The New Orleans Advocate, Brother Everard J. Booth, S.J., has multiple allegations of abuse against him that have been deemed credible.
The information was revealed Thursday, Feb. 20, when the Jesuit organization for the southern U.S. added Booth and three other brothers to their list of suspected abusers.
Booth, who died in a car crash in 1986, is accused of abusing at least one minor in the 1960s.
But the order does not specify where the incidents may have occurred.
Booth joined the Jesuit order in 1934 and began working at Jesuit High in 1941 before leaving on a mission to Sri Lanka in 1946. He returned to the high school in 1971 and worked as a teacher, bookstore manager and disciplinarian until his death.
Jesuit High had offered an endowed scholarship in Booth's name, but that scholarship is no longer listed on the school's website.
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The four other Jesuits named as abusers along with Booth are José Angel Borges, James D. Loeffler and Benjamin Smylie -- all of whom are deceased.
Besides Booth, only Loeffler worked in Louisiana, when he was stationed at Christ the King Parish in Grand Coteau.
The update to the Jesuit Order's list of abusers now brings the list to a total of 46 priests, priests-in-training or brothers who've been accused of sexually abusing minors.