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Biden inauguration priest resigns from Santa Clara University after investigation

In this Nov. 22, 2010 file photo, then Vice President Joe Biden and his wife, Jill Biden stand with heads bowed as the Rev. Kevin O'Brien says the blessing during a Thanksgiving meal for Wounded Warriors in Washington. (Carolyn Kaster/Associated Press)

The Jesuit priest who oversaw President Biden’s inaugural Mass resigned from his post as president of Santa Clara University this week after an internal investigation found he engaged in behaviors that conflicted with the Jesuit order’s “protocols and boundaries,” according to a statement issued by the school Wednesday.

The Rev. Kevin O’Brien, who had been on leave since mid-March, offered his resignation Sunday, according to a letter issued by John Sobrato, president of the Santa Clara, Calif., school’s Board of Trustees.


O’Brien, who formerly served at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., and has known the Bidens since the mid-2000s, had been president at Santa Clara since July 2019.

An investigation by the Jesuits West Province, which oversees Jesuit priests in eight states including California, found O’Brien had “engaged in behaviors, consisting primarily of conversations, during a series of informal dinners with Jesuit graduate students that were inconsistent with established Jesuit protocols and boundaries.”

Read the full story on LATimes.com.