From Mr John Bidwell Sir: I have recently had my
short story A Boy at Seven published by Alexander Waugh. It recounts ten thoroughly miser- able years spent by the author at a leading Jesuit Catholic public school during the 1960s. The story focuses on the harshness and narrow-mindedness of the Jesuit edu- cational ethic at that time. I therefore have little incentive to act as an apologist for the Society of Jesus.
However, during my time at school I was taught for three years by one of the four Jesuits now charged with child sex offences. He was one of the kindest, most decent men I have ever encountered — so much so that I often wondered how he had found his vocation within such a repressed and oppressive community. During our year in Grammar (fourth form) he took a dozen of us on a skiing trip to the Austrian Alps. None of us — and schoolboys of that age are particularly aware of any sexual over- tures — was in any way threatened or made aware of any sexual interest in those under his care.
Should the unfortunate priest in question require a character witness, I would be among the first (and I know there are many others) to step forward and testify to his probity, decency and good character.
John Bidwell
Potmans Heath, Wittersham, Kent
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