A religious community in Orleans is the subject of a federal lawsuit alleging mistreatment of children.
That case against the Community of Jesus is ongoing. In the meantime, some people who used to live at the community are coming forward with troubling allegations of their own.
That's according to Jack Styler of the Provincetown Independent. CAI's Gilda Geist spoke with Jack recently to learn more.
Gilda Geist A lot of your reporting in this story focuses on what was called "Boys Club." So, what did former residents of the Community of Jesus tell you about what happened to them there?
Jack Styler Well, Gilda, I talked to six former residents of the Community of Jesus who said that they were forced to participate in this boot camp-like training that was called Boys Club. And they said that this Boys Club was used as a way of disciplining boys at the Community of Jesus. And it involved a variety of activities, including working out in greenhouses that were hot, running through obstacle courses, lifting weights. But perhaps most troubling, it involved boxing matches between boys. The former residents I talked to said that these boxing matches were sometimes used as disciplinary measures where younger or smaller boys would be matched up against larger boys for perceived infractions at the Community of Jesus.
GG So from what your sources have told you, was this kind of abuse happening at the Community of Jesus even outside the Boys Club? In other words, were Boys Club leaders acting outside what higher ups at the Community expected of them when they would do these kinds of exercises?
JS Well, Gilda, I think it's hard to say exactly how systemic this was. I should note that we went to the Community of Jesus for comment, and their lawyer, Jeffrey Robbins, said that allegations of violence at Boys Club were "garbage." He said that the program consisted of routine sports activities that involved dozens of teenagers through the years who participated in bicycling, weightlifting, rugby, boxing, hiking, camping and rafting trips. But I can also say that the men who the people I interviewed said ran Boys Club have all become prominent leaders in inside the Community of Jesus or have prominent positions outside in the greater Outer Cape community. We still have a lot of questions about how systemic this was. Certainly, it's notable that all three of the men who my sources have told me led this Boys Club declined or did not respond to our request for interviews.
GG What do your findings tell us about the allegations against the community made by Oliver Ortolani in his federal lawsuit?
JS Well, I think that the comparison to Oliver Ortolani's lawsuit is hard to overlook. One of the men I interviewed, Tim DeLude, said that it was heartbreaking for him to read Oliver's story because that's his story too. There are a lot of similarities between what Oliver Ortolani alleges happened on that Brewster construction site in 2019 and 2020 and what these men say happened to them in the 1990s and early 2000s. Both had the young men and teenage boys in the Community of Jesus in programs where they were forced to exercise, allegedly. Both had instances where leadership told them that their spirit was off. It's also notable that both Oliver Ortolani and at least one of the men who participated in Boys Club alleged that they have since been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder from their time at the Community of Jesus.
