Rev. Henry G. Hargreaves-Assignment Record

Assignment Record – Rev. Henry G. Hargreaves, s.j.

Summary of Case: A priest of the Oregon Province of the Society of Jesus, Hargrave was ordained in 1947 and went on to spend the bulk of his lengthy priesthood in remote Alaskan villages. He was suspended from ministry in 2003 due to an allegation that he had made inappropriate sexual advance toward a 60-year-old woman. In a 2009 lawsuit Hargreaves was called a "serial child molester." He was accused of fondling a 6- or 7-year-old boy multiple times in 1956 in Nulato, Alaska, and of raping a 5- or 6-year-old boy in 1992 in the village of Numan Iqua. Hargreaves spent the last decade of his life at the Regis Jesuit Community in Spokane WA, working as a pastoral minister to native American communites. He died February 22, 2013.

Ordained: 1947
Died: Feb. 22, 2013

Start	Stop	Parish/Assignment	Town/Accusations	State/Country	Position	Notes
1947 San Francisco archbishop was John Joseph Mitty (1935-1961).	1948	Alma College	Alma	CA
1948 Seattle bishop was Gerald Shaughnessy, s.m. (1933-1950).	1949	Manresa Hall	Port Townsend	WA	Jesuit Tertianship
1949 Vicariate Apostolic of Alaska bishop was Francis Doyle Gleeson, s.j. (1948-1968).	1952	Little Flower of Jesus	Hooper Bay	AK	2/2
1949	1952		Scammon Bay, Chevak, Kashunak, Keyaluvik.	AK		These were stations of Little Flower of Jesus in Hooper Bay.
1951	1964	Apostleship of Prayer	Fairbanks	AK	Director
1952	1953		Fairbanks	AK		Indexed as at P.O. Box 1390, Fairbanks, AK. This was the bishop's residence. Hargreaves is not listed at previous or next assignment.
1952	1953	Curia for Matrimonial Cases	Fairbanks	AK	Defensor Vinculi et Promotor Justitiae, Notarii
1953	1956	Little Flower of Jesus Church	Hooper Bay	AK
1953	1954		Scammon Bay, Chevak, Kashunak, Keyaluvik	AK		These were stations of Little Flower of Jesus in Hooper Bay.
1954	1956		Scammon Bay	AK		This was a station of Little Flower of Jesus in Hooper Bay.
1956 The Fairbanks diocese was established Aug. 8, 1962.	1965	Immaculate Conception	Bethel • Hargreaves was accused in a 2009 lawsuit of fondling a 6 or 7-year-old boy multiple times in 1956 in Nulato.	AK	1/2, 1/3	Harvgreaves is noted to be "Very Rev." in the 1957-1963 Directories.
1956	1965		Aniak, Kalskag, Nyac, McGrath			These were stations of Immaculate Conception in Bethel.
1956	1963	Superior Regular and Pro-Vicar	Fairbanks	AK
1956	1964	Bishop's Council	Fairbanks	AK
1964 Gleeson was succeeded by Robert Louis Whelan, s.j. (1968-1985).	1969	Commission for Liturgy, Sacred Music and Sacred Art	Fairbanks	AK
1965	1966	St. Michael's	St. Michael	AK	1/2
1965	1966		Stebbins	AK		This was a station of St. Michael's.
1966	1969	Our Lady of the Snows	Nulato	AK	1/1	Our Lady of the Snows had a school with 108-112 students.
			Koyukuk	AK		This was a station of Our Lady of the Snows in Nulato.
1969 Anchorage archbishop was ohn Joseph Thomas Ryan (1966-1975).	1972	Jesuit Residence	Anchorage	AK		Hargreaves is indexed in the 1970 through 1972 Directories as at Our Lady of the Snows in Nulato, but he is not listed as there in the Fairbanks diocesan pages. Per the book, Alaskana Catholic: A History of the Catholic Church in Alaska, by Louis L. Renner, s.j., during 1969-1972 Hargreaves was in Anchorage on Birchwood St., in the Jesuit residence, ministering "to the social and apostolic needs of Native peoples living in, or coming and going through, Anchorage."
1972 Fairbanks diocese	1975	St. Joseph's	Kotlik	AK	1/1
1972	1975		Emmonak	AK		This was a mission of St. Joseph's in Kotlik.
1975 Oakland bishop was Floyd Lawrence Begin (1962-1977).	1976	Jesuit School of Theology	Berkeley	CA	sabbatical
1976	1980	St. Joseph's	Kotlik	AK	1/1
1976	1980		Emmonak	AK		This was a mission of St. Joseph's in Kotlik.
1980 Michael Joseph Kaniecki, s.j. replaced Whelan as Fairbanks bishop (1985-2000).	1987	Immaculate Conception	Bethel	AK	2/2, 1/1, 1/2 Assistant priest was Rev. Charles Bartles, s.j. 1986-1987.	An accusation against Bartles was revealed in the Fairbanks diocese's bankruptcy reorganization documents in 2010.
1980	1987	Our Lady of Guadalupe	Russian Mission	AK		This was a mission of Immaculate Conception in Bethel.
1980	1987	Immaculate Heart of Mary	Marshall	AK		This was a mission of Immaculate Conception in Bethel. Rev. Thomas R. Royce, s.j., who was Jesuit Provincial of the Oregon Province 1980-1986, testified in 2005 that there were "hell files" in the Provincial's office, which contained information about Jesuits that was “special,” “not public” and “not good.” Hargreave's file was among them.
1987	1988	Holy Family	Newtok	AK	1/1
1988	1994	Sacred Heart	Emmonak • Hargreaves was accused in a 2009 lawsuit of raping a 5 or 6-year-old boy in 1992 or so in Numan Iqua, a village formerly known as Sheldon Point. The lawsuit claimed that Hargreaves was a serial child molester.	AK	1/1	The 1993-1994 Directories show Sacred Heart to have had a CCD program with 90-110 students.
1994	1997	Our Lady of Perpetual Help	Nightmute	AK	1/1	Our Lady of Perpetual Help had a CCD program with 54-60 students.
1994	1997	St. Peter the Fisherman	Toksook Bay	AK	1/2	St. Peter's had a CCD program with 150-135 students.
1994	1997		Umkumute	AK		This was a station of St. Peter the Fisherman in Toksook Bay.
1994	1997	St. Joseph's	Tununak	AK	1/1	St. Joseph's had a CCD program with 94-13 students.
1997 Donald Joseph Kettler succeeded Kaniecki (2002-).	2003	Bro. Joe Prince Jesuit Community	St. Mary's	AK		Hargreaves did pastoral ministry in Bethel.
1998	2003	Immaculate Conception	Bethel • Hargreaves was accused of making "inappropriate advances" on a 60- year-old woman in April 2003.	AK	assistant pastor	This assignment is per news reports. Hargreave was suspended from ministry and was to be sent for medical and psychological testing, per diocesan officials in May 2003.
2003	2004					Hargreaves is not indexed in the 2004 Directory.
2004 Spokane bishop was William Stephen Skylstad (1990-2010), followed by Blase Joseph Cupch (2010-).	2013	Regis Jesuit Community	Spokane	WA	Per Alaskana Catholic: A History of the Catholic Church in Alaska, by Louis L. Renner, s.j., Hargreaves ministered to Indian communities in northeastern Washington during this time.	Hargreaves died Feb. 22, 2013.

Sources: Official Catholic Directory (New York: P.J. Kenedy and Sons, 1948-2012)

• Bethel Priest Accused of Sexual Misconduct, Associated Press State & Local Wire, May 20, 2003
• Our Lady of the Snows Parish, Hooper Bay, Alaska: 1928-2003, Editors Note: This Article Is Indebted to a Considerable Extent to Writings by Father Louis L. Renner, S.J., Alaskan Shepherd, June-July 2003
• Fairbanks Bishop Issues Apology for Delta Priest, Associated Press State & Local Wire, August 6, 2003
• Jesuit Abuse Settlement Aims to Heal, $50 Million: Religious Order's Head Says Church Failed Victims in Alaska, By Lisa Demer, Anchorage Daily News, November 20, 2007
• 43 More Allege Sex Abuse by Catholics, Church Leaders Are Accused of Negligent Supervision, By Lisa Demer, Anchorage Daily News, January 14, 2009
• James Doe 59 et al v Society of Jesus, Oregon Province et al, Alaska Superior Court, 4th Judicial District at Bethel, Jan. 14, 2009
• Priest Accused in Lawsuit of Sex Abuse in Alaska, Associated Press, carried in KGW, January 14, 2009
• Lawsuit: Seattle U. President Knew of Abuse, By Heather Bosch, KIRO, January 14, 2009
• Jesuit Head of Seattle U. Knew of Priest's Abuse, Lawsuit Claims, By Janet I. Tu and Nick Perry, Seattle Times, January 14, 2009
• Update: Sundborg Named Defendant in Alleged Sexual Abuse Cover-Up, By Joshua Lynch, The Spectator, January 14, 2009
• Seattle U. President Denies Claims That He Knew of Abuse, By Nick Perry and Janet I. Tu, Seattle Times, January 15, 2009
• Good Jesuit, Bad Jesuit, Nov. 12, 2009
• Racism in the Diocese of Fairbanks: If I Didn’t See It, Then It Didn’t Happen, Second Rape, November 17, 2009
• Alakanuk - Saint Ignatius Catholic Church, Diocese Of Fairbanks
• Emmonak - Sacred Heart Catholic Church, Diocese Of Fairbanks
• Excerpt from Bankruptcy Reorganization Documents for Fairbanks Diocese, Jan. 25, 2010
• Alaskana Catholica: A History of the Catholic Church in Alaska, by Louis L. Renner, s.j., p. 243 , 244

Priests in a Parish: We use the following convention to show a priest's place among the clergy of a parish: 1/2 means that he is the first priest listed in the Official Catholic Directory (usually the pastor) and that there is a total of two priests at the parish. The shorthand 3/4 means that the priest is listed third on a four-priest roster. See our sample page from the Directory.

Note: The Official Catholic Directory aims to report the whereabouts of Catholic priests in the United States on January 1 of the Directory's publication year. Our working assumption is that a priest listed in the Directory for a given year was at the same assignment for part of the previous year as well. However, Kenedy and Sons will sometimes accept updates well into the year of publication. Diocesan clergy records are rarely available to correct this information. The Directory is also sometimes misleading or wrong. We have tried to create an accurate assignment record, given the source materials and their limitations. Assignment records are a work in progress and we are always improving the records that we post. Please email us with new information and corrections.

This assignment record collates Hargreaves' career history as it is represented in the Official Catholic Directory with allegations as reported in the media. We make no representation regarding the truth of the allegation we report, and we remind our readers that the U.S. legal system presumes that a person accused of or charged with a crime is innocent until proven guilty. Similarly, individuals who may be defendants in civil actions are presumed not to be liable for such claims unless a plaintiff proves otherwise. Admissions of guilt or liability are not typically a part of civil or private settlements. For more information, see our posting policy.

This assignment record was last updated on Feb. 13, 2015.