Priest who taught at BC High wrote about celibacy before alleged rape

A Jesuit priest accused of raping a child 15 years ago while teaching at Boston College High School had previously written an op-ed for the Boston Globe praising priestly celibacy and “expressing horror at the sin of priests who abuse children.”

In 2002, when celibacy among Catholic priests became the subject of public debate in the wake of the church’s child sex abuse scandal sparked by an investigation by the Boston Globe’s Spotlight Team, the Rev. Kevin R. White wrote on the Globe’s opinion page that “celibacy is ultimately an expression of great love.”

“Celibates ask us to trust that God’s promise of love and grace makes us rich enough to lack nothing,” White wrote in the essay published on March 6, 2002. “Celibates put everything in God and are convinced that God is worth living for.”

White, then a theology teacher at the private Catholic boys’ high school in Dorchester, recalled his vows of “perpetual poverty, chastity and obedience as a Jesuit” and said that it was only later “through living my vows that I came to realize that I was also vowing to sacrifice myself for the good of others.”

White, 62, of Weston, was indicted last week by a Suffolk County grand jury on a charge of rape of a child. Prosecutors allege that White forced a boy younger than 16 to perform oral sex on him on an unknown date during the 2008-2009 school year, according to the indictment. He is scheduled to be arraigned June 27 in Suffolk Superior Court.

White’s attorney, Douglas S. Brooks, said Wednesday that his client did not commit the alleged abuse and passed a lie detector test, although such tests are not permitted in Massachusetts courts.

“Rev. Kevin White is innocent, as confirmed by his polygraph test, and he looks forward to seeing the truth revealed in court,” Brooks said in a statement. “False accusations are unfortunately a disservice to those who have truly suffered abuse.”

Brooks did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the 2002 opinion article Friday afternoon.

Boston College High officials said this week that White last taught there in 2009 and that the school learned of the allegations from a former student in 2021 and immediately notified the Jesuit USA East Province.

The Jesuit group told the Globe that, in accordance with its policy, White was “immediately removed from public ministry and placed under supervision” after the order learned of the allegations. White has also lost his privileges to perform public ministry in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston.

In 2002, White wrote that the Catholic Church based its policy of celibacy for priests on a biblical quote from Jesus: “Some have renounced marriage for the sake of the kingdom of heaven.”

“Celibates renounce marriage, which is not only the most natural but one of the most sacred things, in order to witness the final advent of the reign of God in this world,” White wrote.

“Celibacy and marriage are mutually directed; both strengthen each other in their common premise of deep roots in the faith to achieve high goals for the Church and society,” he wrote. “For this reason, we feel a collective, intuitive horror at the sin of priests who abuse children, surpassed only by the sin of parents who abuse children.”

“Corruptio optimi pessima est: the corruption of the best is indeed the worst.”

Jeremy C. Fox can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him @jeremycfox.