Jesuit official resigns at Seattle University after news of scandal

Published: 2006-10-17

SEATTLE (CNS) -- 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. 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. Bollard said that several years earlier Father Harris had sent him several greeting cards that featured suggestive pictures of naked men. In an e-mail to Seattle University faculty and students, Father Harris said, "I do not want to be a distraction from the important work at hand." He said he believed his resignation would be "in the best interests of both me and the university."

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