An accused Jesuit is in limbo in Florida.  He’s a Chicago transplant, to New Orleans, where he headed Loyola U. there.  Egad!  He was a university president, for God’s sake!

The Chicago Jesuits have given him the bum’s rush and said they are OK with him being out of pocket.

He was a 2003 case.  So was the convicted and sentenced, free while appealing Donald McGuire, also of Chicago, who was told only recently to stop wearing the collar, says Sun-Times.

I have heard a Chicago Province Jesuit rail against “the media” from an Oak Park pulpit within the past year, while otherwise pulling out the stops to good effect in a parish “mission.”  Would he and other churchmen prefer a veil of silence?

Here’s most of the Sun-Times story:

The Chicago Jesuits list the Rev. Bernard Knoth, once a star in Catholic education, as “absent with permission.”

He’s been working in the secular business world in Sarasota, Fla., since the Jesuits ruled four years ago that a child abuse accusation was “credible.”

Knoth, 58, works for Global Recruiters Network, which isn’t a Jesuit company. His corporate bio reads, “After leaving Loyola in 2003, Bernie decided on a career change.”

As if he had a choice. [Tone bad here, unfortunately]

The Jesuits forced the Chicago native to resign as president of Loyola University in New Orleans. He had formerly worked at schools in Chicago, Indianapolis and Washington, D.C.

Knoth denies the abuse, which the Jesuits said happened in 1986. He remains a priest and a Jesuit, though barred from public ministry or wearing priest’s garb.

When asked by the Chicago Sun-Times this week whether he’ll remain a priest, Knoth was noncomittal.

“We’ve talked about it,” he said.

The Jesuits said Wednesday that Knoth is living on his own, but wouldn’t discuss the terms of his leave or whether he’s being monitored.

“For the Jesuits to allow a known child molester to live without any kind of monitoring or treatment sets up children for abuse,” said Barbara Blaine of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.