Last week, Emily Yoffe, a well-known blog writer and columnist for Slate, wrote a personal account titled “My Molesters” on her experience being sexually assaulted by former Georgetown law professor and Jesuit Rev. Robert Drinan. She was 18 or 19 when the incident occurred in the 1970s. Drinan passed away in 2007, and according to Yoffe’s account he was in his 50s during the incident, before he began his tenure at Georgetown.

Yoffe and her family were supporting Father Drinan’s campaign for congressman at the time. Drinan offered her a ride to the subway when the incident occurred:

We got to where he was letting me off, he turned off the engine, and he began jabbering incoherently about men and women. Then he lunged, shoving his tongue in my mouth while running his hands over my breasts and up and down my torso. It seems like the set-up for a joke, a Jewish woman being molested by a Jesuit. As we tussled, I had probably the most naïve thought of my life: “How could this be happening, he’s a priest!”

She mentions that if these events were reported today, the case has the potential to be considered indecent assault and battery. “Again, I told no one. It was embarrassing, revolting, and I had no desire to make accusations against a congressman, especially one I admired,” Toffe wrote.

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