On Thursday June 8, 2023 Fr. James Jackson FSSP entered a guilty plea to felony receiving of CSAM (Child Sexual Abuse Material) in a Rhode Island Federal Court after his initial arrest in Providence, R.I. on Oct. 30, 2021. This “plea bargain” was the outcome of a lengthy legal battle between the United States Attorney (DOJ) and Fr. Jackson’s defense attorney John Calcagni III. During his indictment Fr. Jackson initially pleaded “not guilty” to the charges of the U.S. Attorney. The case was set to go to trial this June 20. As happens in the majority of DOJ cases this one ended in a plea deal under terms of what most fair minded persons would describe as a legal shake down. No surprises here. This is the way our criminal justice system routinely operates. Prosecutors string together a rambling laundry list of intimidating charges in order to get defendants to settle for some lesser violation and punishment. And since it’s extremely costly and time consuming to put together a defense, 95% of the time defendants will simply capitulate and plead guilty to reduced charges.

Because of Fr. Jackson’s position as a traditional Roman Catholic priest in the Latin Rite FSSP, this story generated a lot of interest. Along with much reporting, most of it negative, there came the inevitable avalanche of online chatter which included countless uncharitable comments, some verging on the scurrilous ─ most by self-professing Catholics who aimed their mud-balls at a priest of God! It should sadden any faithful Catholic that there are those of us all to ready and willing to turn on our own priests like dogs fighting over a piece of red meat. Many of those pundits portray Fr. Jackson as some sort of monster vis a vis Theodore McCarrick even though, in this particular case, a better comparison might be the patently unjust conviction meted out to George Cardinal Pell.

Catholics, even traditional ones, seem all too quick to forget their own history. Consider St. Joan of Arc who, if you recall, was condemned and executed for being a sorceress and an unrepentant heretic. During her trial she was utterly abandoned by the armies she had led to victory, betrayed by the King she had restored, and found guilty by an ecclesiastical court. 500 years later the same Church which had condemned Joan declared her a saint. Her case proves just how biased and unreliable contemporary judgments sometimes prove to be. History often judges things through a different lens than the one through which we are currently peering.

In order to sketch a brief profile of Fr. James Jackson let me note that he arrived as pastor of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel parish in Littleton, Colorado around 2006. I didn’t really get to know him until 2011 when we moved into Littleton, not far from OLMC. Over the next ten years, until his 2021 reassignment to St. Mary’s parish in Providence, I got to know Fr. Jackson fairly well. I would never say we were close pals but we shared a cordial and mutually respectful friendship. As a pastor Fr. Jackson was very much loved by his parishioners. My impression of him was a quiet, thoughtful, and deliberate man; a little bit shy but exuding a gentle kindness to anyone he met or had dealings with. He was deeply reflective and absolutely loved beauty. As a former Marine he also possessed that inner toughness that served him well in managing a parish while completely rebuilding its physical plant, both church and hall, which his congregation was rapidly outgrowing. What he created was a stunning place of worship in the traditional idiom; Catholic in every respect. Father also loved Gregorian chant and gave it pride of place at OLMC.

Yet through all of this fervid activity, and while administering a growing parish, Fr. Jackson found the time and energy to write a book titled Nothing Superfluous highlighting the Traditional Latin Mass. In it he stressed the necessity of beauty and balance in the liturgy, church architecture, and sacred art. He explains every element of the Mass of St. Gregory the Great from the vestments, sacred vessels, altar, and sanctuary to the prayers and rubrics of the Roman Missal. Yet for all these considerable intellectual activities I well remember seeing Fr. Jackson wielding a snow shovel clearing drifts from the church parking lot. Still, contemplation was just as much a part of his personality as activity. Early on, soon after his conversion to the Catholic faith in college, James Jackson had hoped to become a Benedictine monk and spent several years, I believe, in a monastic environment in France. This is a man whose entire life has consisted of balance and order, prudentially blending activity with the contemplative life. He is anything but a “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” as one over-zealous critic patronizingly suggested in a recent online article, a cruel jab designed more to score cheap points than arrive at a fair and objective evaluation of the man behind the sordid headlines.

Steve Cunningham at the Sensus Fidelium website attests that many people have told him they thought Fr. Jackson is a walking saint. I know another priest who lived alongside Fr. Jackson for a good ten years, and although there was an admitted tension between their personalities, yet this person attested that the accusations against Fr. Jackson were absolutely ridiculous. Another points out that his fellow priests in the Denver Archdiocese were so impressed with Fr. Jackson they elected him to the Archbishop’s advisory board. Why? Because at a deanery meeting Fr. Jackson spoke up saying, “If we focused on saving souls the way we focus on money, I think we’d be on to something.” That was typical of the kind of pithy observations Fr. Jackson regularly inserted into his homilies as well.

For years Fr. Jackson was quite close to two former women Federal law enforcement officers. One of them actually served as his parish secretary over a ten year span. This woman had a degree in criminal justice, classes in abnormal psychology, and 18 years of field experience. She insists that someone with a guilty mindset would never have hired her to work for him. Nor did either of these former law enforcement officers ever notice anything unusual in his behavior while they describe him as just a very holy priest.

Keeping that short profile in mind, let us move on to the technical and legal aspects concerning the government’s case against Fr. James Jackson. The first thing to consider is the current climate in the DOJ which has of late weaponized Federal law enforcement against many conservative groups and individuals. These include Traditional Latin Mass Catholics whom some at the FBI saw fit to label “potential domestic terrorists,” pro-life advocates who have been terrorized and arrested in swat-type raids, and even a former President whose unprecedented indictment and stripping of Fourth Amendment rights by political rivals threatens to subvert the American rule of law. Over the past six years we have seen too many instances of politically motivated selective prosecution, all indicative of a two-tiered justice system (Remember Mike Flynn’s 2017 troubles), to dismiss repetitive DOJ malpractice as mere conspiracy theories.

It is entirely possible that Fr. Jackson became the unwitting victim of some disgruntled activist determined to hack into the router at St. Mary’s parish in Providence. In fact, Fr. Jackson had called and led a protest against a black mass in the area just days before his arrest. His committed pro-life stance certainly did not go unnoticed in a state which enshrined abortion in its constitution about this same time. With a target already painted on his back, how difficult would it be to hack into the parish router and download CSAM (kiddie porn) before tipping off the Rhode Island ICAC (Internet Crimes Against Children) office?

I am about as far removed from cyber expertise as one gets, but I do know people who understand these things quite well. Someone who is well versed in computer technology explained it to me this way. The router is the key. If the router was unsecured or had a shared password, anyone could have accessed the parish network at any time. This means a nefarious individual could access that network, download material, and place it on any computer or hard drive on the network with relative ease, especially if that hard drive was a “shared drive” on the network. State agents subsequently raided the rectory, with little apparent regard for Fr. Jackson’s Fourth Amendment rights, and recovered an external hard drive containing thousands of CSAM images and videos. At some point the Feds stepped in and filed Federal charges of receiving and possessing CSAM against Fr. Jackson.

Of course, there is the unsettling question in Fr. Jackson’s case, not unlike former President Donald Trump for example, as to whether the way materials were obtained fell within Fourth Amendment protections. We are seeing a disturbing trend in law enforcement of disregarding Constitutional law. This has become a serious issue in the internet age where all kinds of new spying techniques have cropped up as companies like Google harvest more and more personal data while creating algorithms that predict personal behaviors. They then market your private information to anyone with money, including government agencies.

In a Wall Street Journal article dated June 13, 2023, “Spy Agencies Buy Up Personal Data,” Oregon Senator Ron Wyden wonders, “If the government can buy its way around the Fourth Amendment due-process there will be few meaningful limits on government surveillance.” Did the Rhode Island ICAC have a legally justified ‘probable cause’ to execute a search? Was this a fishing expedition or even a case of government entrapment? What was the origin of the CSAM that ended up of Fr. Jackson’s external hard drive? Was it being trafficked to a particular IP address by overzealous investigators or by some third party? These are all very concerning questions that remain unanswered.

Nevertheless, On October 30, 2021 Fr. Jackson was arrested and subsequently indicted under Federal statutes for receiving and possessing CSAM (child pornography). At this point the story takes a bizarre twist. In November, 2021 Fr. Jackson was granted a pre-trial supervised release (i.e., bail). He was allowed to live with his sister and brother-in-law at their Kansas home but allowed only one electronic device, a cell phone. Later that month, after requesting to exchange his cell phone for a laptop computer he dutifully turned the laptop over to his probation officer to have monitoring software installed on it. That officer, suspecting that illegal images might also be on the laptop sent it to Rhode Island for a forensic exam and, voila! Other images were found as well.

It seems to me more than incredulous that a highly intelligent, albeit technically naïve, person like Fr. Jackson would knowingly further incriminate himself while already under indictment by voluntarily turning over a laptop if he knew or even suspected it might contain other CSAM images imbedded within. The criminal mind simply doesn’t work that way. A true criminal would never have brought the suspect laptop forward, or might have performed a Hillary Clinton on it by smashing it to smithereens behind the garage. Fr. Jackson did neither. He trustingly turned over what he believed to be a clean device to be inspected and downloaded with monitoring software. What was he thinking? Or did he simply not suspect that this laptop may have been hacked alongside his confiscated hard drive?

Six months later at his sister’s home in Kansas, agents from the Kansas ICAC raided the house and confiscated another computer hard drive, belonging to Fr. Jackson, which they suspected of containing CSAM. Forensic analysis found that any folders within were either encrypted or too corrupted to view actual images but three file names were found suggestive of illegal materials having been present at one time. In July Fr. Jackson’s supervised release was revoked and he was returned to Federal custody in Rhode Island. Again, would any rational person already under indictment risk downloading more CSAM especially knowing that monitoring software was installed on the device? Anyone who has known Fr. Jackson for any amount of time knows that he is not the type to recklessly engage in Russian Roulette style behaviors. His actions have always been cautious, thoughtful, and deliberate.

I suspect the game plan all along was to get him back into Federal custody where he could be more easily intimidated, shaken down, and threatened by government prosecutors. This is a man who, according to his parish secretary did not even allow subordinate priests in his rectory to have texting ability on their phones. She avows that for most of his 15 year tenure at OLMC parish he and his staff used paper and pen. This hardly fits the profile of a sophisticated cyber criminal.

Then why, or under what extraordinary pressures did Fr. Jackson, who had insistently pleaded not guilty to the Federal charges, suddenly plea guilty to “receiving” but not “possessing” illegal CSAM. Many of the comments over the internet criticize or outright accuse him of lying for convenience sake thus denying the principle of truth. After all, if he really believed himself innocent why plea bargain 12 days before the trial is set? Remember what Our Blessed Lord said about the apostle Nathanael? “He is a true son of Israel. There is no guile in him.” (Jn. 1:47) Fr. Jackson is one who takes things literally. He simply recognized the fact that computer devices owned by him had in fact received CSAM. On the face of it he is not disputing the fact. He is not admitting that he caused such material to be downloaded, or even that he knew of it, but the practical matter of the fact is that this nonetheless happened. Father is the very practical, honest sort. The thing is what it is. The process by which those materials were somehow downloaded is very likely way beyond his comprehension.

This also explains why the government attorneys are quite willing to drop the “possession” side of the indictment, aware that they could likely never prove knowledge of intent to possess. Fr. Jackson’s plea is merely an admission that the materials in question ended up on his hard drive, irrespective of what caused them to be there. Legally speaking, responsibility is normally assigned to the current owner as many cases of environmental contamination and cleanup have demonstrated time and again. If you buy a house and the basement floods the day after closing it becomes your responsibility. He is saying that he is guilty of owning the device on which CSAM materials were undoubtedly received, nothing more. Is it fair or just? Probably not, but now we are entering into the moral and spiritual realm.

God allows bad things to happen to good men in order to test them. At this point I would like to look at things from the spiritual, Godly point of view as I am sure Fr. Jackson has already done. The first thing necessary is to draw the distinction between legal guilt and moral guilt. When civil law is in harmony with divine law then the two are pretty much compatible, but there are instances when one can be legally guilty but morally pure. A good example is the recusancy laws in force in England and even colonial era places like Virginia. Recusancy meant refusing to attend Church of England services and many Catholics were heavily fined, often for generations, for absenting themselves from what they saw as a sacrilegious form of worship. Thus they were legally guilty and subject to steep fines but morally they were right in breaking such a law because to comply would be to risk one’s eternal salvation. Guilty according to law, they were morally right to recuse themselves.

Now in the case of child pornography this is something both morally and legally reprehensible, but to be morally culpable one has to be aware and complicit in engaging with it. There is no sin where knowledge is lacking even if one is technically complicit. This is where the digital age has changed everything. Nothing is tangible anymore. Pornography isn’t in books or on pages, it’s floating around as electronic bits in an invisible cyberspace. Virtual reality now seeks to displace even physical reality, thus we all find ourselves constantly treading the minefield, uncertain of just what might lurk under the surface of any screen. Under these circumstances anyone might be an unsuspecting purveyor or recipient of CSAM. This is why it may be possible for someone like Fr. Jackson to be technically guilty and yet morally innocent of “receiving.” It’s a devious Catch 22 constructed by the Big Tech oligarchs whose primary interest seems to be the shameless exploitation and subjugation of the human race rather than its advancement.

But we are not the jury. The question of Fr. Jackson’s guilt or innocence is ultimately not ours to judge. That determination is between him and God. For 35 years Fr. Jackson was blessed with an incredibly fruitful ministry as a priest. And now, much like St. John the Baptist who was also imprisoned for speaking truth to power, Fr. Jackson can echo the Baptist’s docile fiat, “He must increase and I must decrease.” As humans we naturally view both suffering and injustice as things to be avoided or vigorously fought against. In God’s plan for our eternal salvation however, these things are paradoxically turned into the tools of our redemption.

I have no doubt that Fr. Jackson understands this reality and accepts everything that has happened as an expression of the will of God. Regardless of moral guilt or innocence he has nonetheless endured incomprehensible humiliation, abandonment by most of his friends, and the loss of that which he holds most dear ─ the ability to say Mass and administer the sacraments. For a man with the greatest sensitivity to beauty, you can only imagine how a prison must look and feel. In other words, Fr. Jackson is now treading the rocky path of Golgotha in the footsteps of his Master. But that is what a priest is, an alter Christus, another Christ, and so the patient endurance of a white martyrdom at the hands of a corrupt and increasingly evil system becomes an opportunity to both imitate and be a witness to Christ.

Every morning of his priestly life Fr. Jackson began the Mass with these words: “Judge me, O God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation; deliver me from the unjust and sinful man. For you are my God and my strength; why have you forsaken me; why do I go mourning while the enemy afflicts me?” That beautiful Psalm 42 was then immediately followed by his own confession of sin, “I confess to almighty God.… and to you brethren that I have sinned exceedingly in my thoughts, words, and deeds, mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa…” None are without sin but we must humbly recognize this reality before we can approach the altar of God. To often religion and faith are reduced to mere words and gestures but suffering is what gives them real substance. Like hardening off a young plant God allows us suffering to harden and mature our faith.

Reading through Fr. Jackson’s book on the Traditional Mass I was struck by his own words of reflection on this mystery of sin and repentance as embodied in the liturgy. He writes, “The priest then begins the Confiteor. He confesses his sins first,… since, “the just is the first accuser of himself” (Prov. 18:17). The priest ought to be adorned with blamelessness, purity, and sanctity of life. But despite his careful preparation he knows and feels keenly that he is still far removed from such sanctity… Even light faults and negligences become grave evils in his eyes, when he weighs them in the scales of the sanctuary, since even “for sins forgiven he is not without fear” (Ecclus. 5:5). So he has every reason to make a public confession of guilt, to approach the altar only in a deep spirit of sorrow and compunction, and to implore heavenly and earthly intercession.”

A few pages later Fr. Jackson ponders the gift of fortitude, or courage “which gives to those who receive it a strong spirit of resolution and firmness of mind and will to persevere with a quiet faith in God’s providence that overcomes all obstacles. It also gives courage to persist in the practice of virtue despite trials, illness, persecution or external failure. A Catholic who becomes fervent in God’s service will soon be condemned by the world, but the gift of fortitude will sustain him as he carries the cross.” Written over eight years ago, these lines read almost as though Fr. Jackson were anticipating his own future trials. He does not attempt to gloss over anything. The mystery of iniquity is exactly that, a deep mystery which only the humble submission to the will of God can unlock for each one of us, priests and laity alike.

I am in no position to make any kind of judgment on the case against Fr. Jackson although I sincerely believe him to be an upright and meticulously honest man. He is certainly far more scrupulous, that is sensitive to right and wrong, than I can ever hope to be and so he is the type of person who tends to be his own worst critic. But he is no more or less a sinner than you or I am. He greatly reminds me of the fictional priest, Fr. Michael Logan, portrayed by Montgomery Clift in the 1953 Alfred Hitchcock film I Confess. Fr. Logan is accused of a murder he did not commit but cannot exonerate himself because he will not break the Seal of Confession. The real killer had already confessed the crime to him in the confessional. It is a cinematic masterpiece that you should watch if you’ve never seen it. The irony is that Fr. Jackson even bears an uncanny physical resemblance to Clift as Fr. Michael Logan. But his spiritually resemblance I suspect is more akin to that of St. Thomas More as that great man languished in prison during those last months before his execution.

The last word rightly belongs to Fr. Jackson, excerpted from a letter to a parishioner that he wrote on April 23 of this year from the Federal detention facility where he has been teaching Spanish to some of the inmates and encouraging them to stop blaspheming. I think it reveals his humanity and his state of mind, namely a docility towards the will of God. He writes, “I must admit my life here is no longer an intense struggle. Heaven knows I pray to be delivered from my captivity and restored to the altar in purity and obedience, and that what seems like the smoldering wick of my priesthood would not be quenched ─ yet I’m now at peace with losing everything from freedom to the clerical state. I believe in His providence, His almighty will, His utter goodness, His holiness. And if He wants total loss, I think I’m ready.”

Francis J. Pierson + a.m.d.g.16^th

June, 2023 ~ Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus