New Damien president touts Christian Brothers education

Damien Memorial School’s new president, Brother Brian M. Walsh, has taken over in the middle of the school year and visited the school Monday after overseeing a $1.9 million settlement to victims of child sexual abuse at a Catholic school in New Jersey three years ago.

Walsh, who is believed to be in his 70s, immediately replaced Wes Porter, who served as Damien’s president for 30 months.

Walsh’s arrival also coincided with the firing of the chairman of Damien’s board of directors; the dissolution of “Damien Memorial’s Sponsor Council”; and a promised emphasis by Walsh that students will receive a “faith-based education that espouses to the ‘Essential Elements of an Edmund Rice Christian Brother Education.’”

In 2016 Walsh signed a $1.9 million settlement with 21 student victims who had been abused between 1963 and 1978 at Bergen Catholic High School, where Walsh was president, according to multiple media reports at the time.

Bergen Catholic is a private, four-year, college-prep high school for about 750 male students in Oradell, N.J., about 10 miles from New York City.

Then in February the Trustees of Christian Brothers (NJ) Institute announced that Walsh was stepping down as president of Bergen Catholic High School to assume the role of co-director of the Edmund Rice Christian Brothers Office of Education Services in New Rochelle, N.Y., in July.

Walsh was supposed to focus “on Catholic identity in the 21st century for Edmund Rice Christian Brother schools in North America,” according to the announcement.

Instead, he showed up in Honolulu, and his new role as Damien’s president was announced Thursday.

“I’m rather surprised that he was hired there (Damien) because he just resigned as president of Bergen Catholic High School,” said Bob Hoatson, a former Catholic priest and Christian brother who was sexually abused and protested outside of Walsh’s former school, Bergen Catholic High School.

“I thought this was his retirement, his going-away situation,” Hoatson said. “Catho­lic education is being run by lay people more and more, so it looks like they’re turning the corner backward.”

Walsh’s replacement at Bergen Catholic High School was a 43-year-old, lay educator.

The Rev. Kobutsu Malone, a Zen Buddhist priest who said he was abused at Bergen Catholic High School in 1967, said Walsh refused to sign off on a settlement to Malone because he refused to take down a website about Catholic sex abuse.

“I’m shocked,” Malone said. “I am absolutely shocked, first of all that he’s resurfaced in Hawaii, of all places.”

In a statement, Steve Mangione, a spokesman for the Christian Brothers on the East Coast, said there was no connection between the sex abuse settlements in New Jersey and Walsh’s new responsibilities at Damien.

“The board of directors of a school in New Jersey voted to settle abuse cases involving allegations from the 1960s and 1970s — and because Bro. Walsh was the president at the school at the time of the settlement in 2015, as the chief administrator he was required to sign the agreement,” Mangione wrote. “It’s preposterous — and, frankly, insolent — to think that Bro. Walsh was appointed as president of Damien Memorial to oversee lawsuit settlements.”

Instead, Mangione wrote, the members of the Corporation of Damien Memorial hired Walsh “when confronted with ultimatums by the leadership at Damien Memorial — including the unsolicited and inexplicable move to separate the school from the governance of the Christian Brothers. … Unfortunately, Damien Memorial’s leadership was in direct conflict with the school’s mission as an Edmund Rice Christian Brother institution, which made it crystal clear that change was needed.”

A biography of Walsh provided by Mangione did not mention Walsh’s role in the sex abuse settlement.

It does say that he has a bachelor’s degree in science education from Iona College, a Master of Science degree in secondary school education from Seton Hall University and a Master of Arts degree in education from Nazareth College.

Walsh’s background as a high school administrator includes serving two times as president, three times as principal, dean of students and department chairman at four high schools in Rhode Island, New Jersey and New York; and a stint as a schools superintendent.

Walsh also served nine years as deputy province leader and three years as province leader of the Edmund Rice Christian Brothers.