[Bio of Father Eric Ensey as posted on Society of Saint John website 06 March 2002]
It has been said that every man, whether he knows it or not, lives his life under the sway of one of the transcendentals; he pursues God under the aspect of truth, goodness, beauty or unity. And while he gives honor to all of these, to one he gives his special devotion, striving to extend its province on the world. If this be so, Father Eric Ensey is a disciple of the beautiful. His path to God was illuminated by the splendor of the real and with this splendor he has sought to light the path of others.
Father Ensey was born on August 13, 1966 in Upland, California, a suburb northeast of Los Angeles. The older of the two sons of Michael and Marion Ensey, he and his brother Brian spent a happy childhood in the maritime countryside of the San Fernando Valley. Eric did well in school, often earning honors, and developing a keen love for literature. During his middle school years he played soccer and ran track, but when he got to high school he fell in love with the theater and devoted all his free time to the performing arts. The young nominal Methodist, who won leading and supporting roles in Brigadoon and Arsenic and Old Lace gave himself completely to the “temple of the theater.” Other events, however, were drawing his mind to God.
Fr. Ensey appeared on EWTN’s “The Journey Home” on September 10, 1999 with host Marcus Grodi. Listen with Real Audio here.
Or, you can download the 56 minute audio file here.
A sudden fall left Marion Ensey paralyzed from the waist down, and brought Eric face to face with the prospect of his mother’s death. At the same time, his reading of The Crucible and The Scarlet Letter at school moved him to question deeply the place of Christ in his life.
Soon he began attending a Lutheran church, attracted by its’ many Roman beauties such as the singing of the Kyrie. Then a wrong turn at a local shopping mall in search of a job brought Eric to the Sacred Heart Shop where he was stunned and delighted by the Catholic religious art. He got to know the owners and bought many books and statues. All these influences bore fruit when Father was received into the Church in the spring of his senior year.
When Father Ensey approached the parish priest with his decision to enter the Church, he surprised him with a double request: he wanted not only to become a Catholic, but a priest as well. In September of 1987 Father Ensey entered the seminary of the Society of Pius X and eight years later he was ordained to the priesthood in vestments made by his mother.
These joys were augmented when Father received his mother back into the Church of her childhood and saw his father baptized.
After two busy but happy years working in Detroit, Father Ensey made the difficult decision to leave the Society of Pius X and become a founding member of the Society of St. John. By many twists and turns the Society of Saint John made its’ way to Elmhurst, Pennsylvania and St. Gregory’s Academy, the Fraternity of St. Peter’s boys’ school where the Society is now temporarily head-quartered. Father’s present duties include serving as Council Father for the Society’s supreme governing body and as assistant chaplain to the Academy.
Since coming to St. Gregory’s, where the poetic mode of teaching is strongly emphasized, Father has rediscovered his interest in the arts. “I have always loved good literature and verse. Then, as a newly ordained priest, I was introduced to the idea of the ‘poem of the cosmos’ – the view of creation as a sort of love letter from God to humanity, or, to change the theme, a grand musical composition. That’s the song I want to sing, I thought. Human poetry is at its’ height, it seems, when it’s in tune with the ‘big poem,’ just like a man’s life is only what is was intended to be when it rises and falls with the cadences planned by the divine Poet.”
Father Eric Ensey’s journey has been an adventure in the pursuit of the beautiful, an attempt to hear the divine harmonies and sing the divine song. By grace God has brought him to the Faith and the priesthood so that he might communicate to others “the knowledge of the glory of God, shining on the face of Christ Jesus.”
Eric Ensey is a savage…a sexual predator who preyed on minors, to assuage his homosexual lust. This ambulatory filth was ordained a Catholic priest, and sported a roman collar…a clever disguise to prey on the innocent and unsuspecting, as he prowled the streets looking for male target’s… Eric sodomized a minor at his parent’s home in Santa Paula… Eric used to ply minor’s with liquor and tobacco, just before he swooped in like a “crazed” chickenhawk”, with poison on his talon’s… Eric should be in prison, with the other animals…let them have a turn at him in the showers…shocking, positively shocking
Pederast’s are more “explosively” dangerous then the garden variety pedophile…psychologically, the pederast, is a “true hunter”, a predator if you will… who seeks out males that are just entering, or already in puberty and quite capable of fathering their own families. The “associations” that these miscreant’s seek to cultivate with adolescent males, is of a sexual nature, that is of a deviant variety, which includes a horrific array of sexually perverse activity, that these degenerates delight and indulge in. These social deviants are hard core predators… just like Eric Ensey, who sodomized a minor to satisfy his homosexual lust for a “young male”…pederast’s are vermin, that should be imprisoned for life! Eric Ensey is roaming the street’s free, and as far as I can tell, is not on “Megan’s Law”. Why Not?!…This professional “grime-ball” should be shackled and have an ankle beeper attached to him, lest he go anywhere near a high school, or junior high, it should sound an alarm bell that is activated at the local police station! The statute of limitation’s has allowed this “turd” to escape the penal system…now that he is defrocked and roaming about un-escorted, he must be a volcano of homosexual lust, swelling daily with concupiscence…he’s already sodomized a young man in Santa Paula and possibly other’s. Wherever Eric lives…he needs to be restrained and monitored, lest he harm another innocent that he is seeking to debauch. Eric Ensey and Urrugitoy (?), are both human refuse. These types of sociopaths should be locked up and studied by psychologists and criminologist’s, who seek to unlock the mystery of human evil and diseases of the mind…
Has anyone noticed that 9 or so of the 15 founders attended Thomas Aquinas College? Ensey wasn’t one of them. Thomas Aquinas College is in Santa Paula, Ca. Ensey committed his crimes in Santa Paula. Why is this so?
Ensey’s parents live/lived in Santa paula…he’s filth
His parents live/lived in Thousand Oaks.
I went to high school with him. Attended cast parties at his home.
I am trying to find out if the Society of St. John has come back to life and is Eric Ensey somehow involved? How long was he associated with the SSPX before becoming a co-founder of the Society of St. John. Was he ever actually convicted of molesting young boys? I used to donate to this Society and thought it was going to be a very good thing and thin I was shocked to hear otherwise.
I spent time with Ensey when he was in SSPX… including being a lone passenger in his minivan while he drove, etc. I remember it like it was yesterday. I was about 21 at the time, but I looked a lot younger. Ensey never did anything in the slightest that was inappropriate towards me. Whether he was later guilty or not of these sins/crimes, I don’t know. All I know is, the first Latin Mass I ever attended was offered by him. He was my introduction to Tradition, and for this I am thankful. Also, it does not sound very Christian to me to wish for a man (guilty or not) to be raped in prison, as one of the other commenters did. God might send a soul to Hell, or punish people in this life, but God would never wish forced Sodomy (an abomination in God’s sight) upon anyone, even someone who already committed sodomy. As far as “filth,” “savage”, “animal” goes… take a good look at society today. Do you realize what is in the music that kids are listening to today, what the kids are doing today, what their parents are encouraging them to do? This whole society is filth from top to bottom, and makes Sodom and Gomorrah look like holy cities. No matter what any person has done though, God still loves that person, and calls them to repentance and wants them in Heaven in the end.
That’s a bit of a ramble Dave.
Anyway, millstomes. Just remember the millstones
Dave,
A few thoughts. The fact that a sexual predator against underage people did not use an opportunity to turn on you–when you were 21–proves absolutely nothing. Molesters (like any other criminals) tend not to prey on everyone. They, like other rapists, are seeking a particular look, as well as characters that they see as ideal “victims.” Fortunately, you did not fit the bill.
Perhaps a few commentators to this site rant against certain perpetrators, just as other commentators hope for vile things to happen to those victims who speak up. Of course this is unfortunate and unChristian; however, it does not undermine the good this site is doing in bringing evil to light. If anything, it illuminates how much unfocused anger exists around this subject–and in the case of the victims and their families, is it any wonder?
The fact that God loves every person should NOT be used as an excuse to avoid bringing those who abuse children to justice–the destruction they cause to innocent lives is too great.
I knew ex-Fr. Ensey before he became a priest. I knew the Catholic shop owner who introduced him to Tradition. Ex-Fr. Ensey never went to a parish, so he could have never approached the parish priest as is written in the article. We all went to Mass together to an independent Traditional priest who worked in cooperation with the SSPX. Mr. Ensey was a candidate for marriage for many young ladies in our congregation, me included. He and I went out once together. He was the oddest man I had ever gone out with and I knew then there was something wrong with him. He has hurt so many people, but we should not wish ill of him even though he should be in jail. Remember we are supposed to pray for our enemies. Take comfort in the fact that God gives the best justice. Remember Matthew: “But he that shall scandalize one of these little ones that believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone should be hanged about his neck, and that he should be drowned in the depth of the sea.”
We need justice to be done on earth too ex-friend. Children must be protected.
Ex-friend did say that she thought he should be in jail. He should be. She’s not saying otherwise. I think she is simply stating that to wish ill on him isn’t in keeping with our faith and can have a detrimental effect on us internally.
That being said, wanting legal justice goes hand in hand with being raped in the shower if you’re guilty of sex crimes. Doubly so for sex crimes against children. That’s a speculation, that’s a fact. The law of the jungle rules in the prison system. (I have done prison ministry, and most of my family is in of law enforcement. Trust me, the rules are different inside.)
I, too, used to be friends with Fr. Eric’s family and was a part of that small community that went to Fr. Schell’s and hung out with the “catholic shop owner” who introduced him to tradition. It is sad that so many have been harmed and that almost no one had the courage or support to approach authorities and follow through all the way on a case against him. I can speculate on why that is, but it doesn’t change the fact that there’s a good ‘ol boys network in effect. Fr. Urroitigoity is still a priest in good standing???? What? If Fr. Ensey was defrocked and Fr. Carlos wasn’t then does that make Fr. Ensey the fall guy, because he was the most effeminate of the group?? He wasn’t the only one according to the reports I was personally privy to.
Yeah right…Eric Ensey was a real “chick-magnet”…LMAO!…I remember this tinkerbell…don’t ever remember seeing him in the presence of any “attractive” female…uh-uh, not even close… the only chica’s he attracted were women on medicare, with blue hair…ROTFLOL!…this was just before his true self manifested, and he pursued the demographic that really pressed his “hot-button”…14 year old males, on the cusp of puberty…Eric Ensey a dyed-in the wool pervert, who excelled at only one thing…buggery!…One more thing, the only people HE really hurt, were the underage males he sexually assaulted and traumatized for LIFE, not the people who falsely “idealized” him as anything other than what he truly was and is, a social deviant, steeped in the art of perversion. Nuff said
True, he was seldom in the company of women, but a lot of gals gossiped about how cute and eligible they thought he was. They didn’t know any better. They just assumed his lack of attraction to them was due to his “vocation”.
Wow, you’re really trying hard to act like you know everything!!!
I knew Eric long before his “vocation” ever manifested itself. I knew him in high school and what Maryssa says is true. I know a LOT of girls, myself included, who thought he was attractive.
And before you go making an ad hominem attack, I am/have been considered quite attractive, having participated in and won several beauty pageants and also appeared on Baywatch a few times.
Oh, and lest you delude yourself into thinking the only people he hurt were the boys he assaulted, think again. Those of us who knew the sweet, talented young man were tremendously hurt by his actions later in life. Our memories are tainted and some/most of us have spent quite a bit of time looking back….did we miss something? Was there something WE could have done THEN to save those boys?
Nuff said.
On a final note. I remember the people that Eric ran around with, by some peripheral association, and they were mostly heretics and schismatics. Eric was an outgrowth of some pretty strange circumstances that converged, ( mind you, I am somewhat speculating). The old lady who ran the “shop” glorified and romanticized” Eric in a very disgusting and sexual way. Other people were aware of it and it was quite creepy. She had rotten teeth and if memory serves me was divorced and possibly alcoholic. Eric was a slender, effeminate young man, who seemed very confused and uncertain about life. He was a convert, I think a methodist or something, and entered the Church with a rather unrealistic and romanticized concept of the Catholic Church. As a Catholic, I felt he was confused and many of his sycophants were as deluded as he, and worse. Hopefully Eric gets the help he needs and never, I mean NEVAH!, lives anywhere near a middle school or high school! Pederast’s don’t change, they are “wired” in the most demonic fashion to seek out young males in order to satiate this unnatural lust. As a behavioral scientist, I am eminently qualified to articulate my impressions based on case studies and observations of these dangerous predators. I have worked with a myriad of behaviorally challenged people from various populations, including those who are suffering from sociopathy and many of it’s sinister incarnations. Pederasty is one of many…and believe me, these evildoer’s don’t change with time! Sociopaths will often “cool-off” as they age, and sometimes are able to assimilate into the fabric of society, without acting out…this does not mean they are cured, only that age and the very real fear of prison and scorn from family and associates, keeps them somewhat in check…Just like Sandusky and other’s, Eric is one of many…shocking, positively shocking
I was about 11 or 12 when I knew Eric Ensey at Fr Schell’s mass. I used to go on the youth group trips with Eric and several other people. My parents were over the moon about Eric and his vocation and supported him for many years.
I never witnessed anything bad or inappropriate behavior on his part when I was around him in fact he seemed very pious. He was a bit nerdy and maybe a little effeminate but I was quite fond of him as he seemed like a good person and he never threw a look at me sideways being that I was an adolescent boy.
I hope he finds true repentance if these allegations are true and that he can get past these demons for his soul. I also pray for the victims of abuse and can wholeheartedly understand their pain.
Very sad indeed.
FS Parishioner, well balanced response! Nice to have your input and support, especially for the victims. Thanks.