Fifty-one new victims came forward with allegations of abuse at Jesuit schools last year, according to figures released in the Catholic order’s latest safeguarding report.
On February 12, 2025, the Jesuits in Ireland publicly named 15 deceased members who were the subject of child sexual abuse complaints. This prompted a new wave of allegations from 51 people not previously known to the Jesuits.
Saoirse Fox, the director of safeguarding and professional standards for the Jesuits, said: “It is safe to believe that the public communication in February [2025] was the catalyst for most people bringing forward their accounts of abuse.”
A total of 18 Jesuits against whom allegations of abuse had been made have been publicly named.
In 2021, the Jesuits named Fr Joseph Marmion as having abused boys sexually, emotionally and physically during his time as a teacher at Belvedere College from 1969 until 1978.
The naming of Marmion was requested by a former student who was sexually and emotionally abused by the priest in the 1970s when he was 13. In 2024, they also named Fr Paul Andrews and Fr Dermot Casey.
The majority of the new complaints in 2025 (43) were made against 14 of the 18 Jesuits who had been named publicly last year.
Six of the complaints were made against other Jesuits, while two were made against Jesuits whose names have not yet been disclosed. In addition, four complaints were made against lay teachers.
While the majority of the complaints related to child sexual abuse (39), nine related to physical and emotional abuse, while a further seven were complaints of inappropriate behaviour that was not sexual abuse.
The new complaints spiked last February when the Jesuits published the list, prompting 35 new victims to come forward.
The new figures, when added to the number of people who came forward in 2024 (62) bring the total of victims to 113.
“This is a very significant number of people over a two-year period who for the first time ensured the Jesuits knew that they, too, were abused,” Ms Fox said.
A total of 250 child sexual abuse allegations have been made against 50 individuals who were Jesuits at the time of the alleged abuse.
In a statement, Jesuit Provincial in Ireland, Fr Shane Daly SJ, said he hoped that the report’s updated figures and safeguarding information would show the Jesuits’ commitment to providing safe spaces and safe relationships for the children and adults with whom they work and minister.
“It is an important part of our ongoing process of atoning for past failures and the creation of real change for the future,” he said.
Fr Daly acknowledged that rebuilding trust in the church and Jesuit institutions would be “a long process”.
“We hope the transparency and communication of everything we are doing in the area of safeguarding will be a step towards it,” he said.
The naming of Jesuits accused of abuse last year followed an examination of the files of deceased Jesuits by an Independent Working Group.