Benedict Van der Putten
Ordained: 1992
Benedict Van der Putten was a priest with the Society of St. Pius X, a sect that is not officially recognized by the Roman Catholic Church. Van der Putten was leading retreats at the St. Aloysius Retreat in Los Gatos, CA, in the late 1990s and early 2000s. This retreat was not operated or sanctioned by the Diocese of San Jose. Around 2000, he was reported to have molested one young girl there and attempted to molest another. Van der Putten was transferred to his order’s headquarters in Switzerland and was eventually expelled. The order also reported the incident to the Vatican at that time. In 2002, he applied to be incardinated in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Scranton, PA, but was denied after the Vatican advised that diocese of the allegations against him. A profile of Van der Putten appears in the 2018 Pennsylvania Grand Jury Report on child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church and indicates that he continues to advertise his availability as a youth retreat leader, presenting himself as a priest in good standing.
