‘It’s an old-boy network’: Survivors feel disgust, vindication after Sun names church officials in abuse cover-ups

When Brian P. Hannon finally reported to the Baltimore Archdiocese that as a teenager he had been repeatedly raped by a priest in the rectory of a Catonsville church, one of the officials he met with was the Rev. Bruce Jarboe, now a monsignor.

“He’s the one running the show,” Hannon, now 65, recalled of the meeting about 20 years ago. “He was very condescending to me. They acted like I was putting them out.”

When Hannon learned Friday that Jarboe was one of five high-ranking church officials who helped abusive priests escape accountability, but whose names were redacted from the recent Maryland Attorney General’s Office report on decades of clergy child sex abuse in the archdiocese, he wasn’t surprised.

“Disgusting,” Hannon said. “It’s an old-boy network.”

The archdiocese paid for lawyers to argue before a Baltimore judge, successfully as it turns out, that the names should be withheld from the initial public version of the report released last month.

The Baltimore Sun, combing through thousands of pages of court records, archdiocese directories and newspaper articles from the past, determined the names of the men referred to as Officials A, B, C, D and E. The newspaper confirmed its reporting with people with knowledge of their conduct at the time or who are familiar with the report.

The priest who abused Hannon at St. Mark in Catonsville, David G. Smith, pleaded guilty to perverted practice in 2002 in that case and received probation.

Two years before that, Jarboe, called “Official A” in 10 places in the report, had counseled Smith, the report said. The priest told him he wanted to take a leave of absence to receive psychological counseling, and Jarboe suggested he consider a facility that would not “mark him unfairly” in the future.

Jarboe is the pastor of St. Ann Roman Catholic Church in Hagerstown, where he celebrated Mass on Sunday. He made no mention of The Sun’s revelation of him as “Official A,” according to a livestream of the service.

Jarboe will transfer July 1 to Immaculate Conception in Towson as its pastor, according to a March announcement by the archdiocese. Following Mass there Sunday, William Keenan said he would stop worshipping at the parish if that happens.

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