Advocates for people abused by Catholic priests are demanding that the Northwest leader of the Jesuits take a lie detector test regarding his knowledge of past abuse by the former president of Gonzaga University.

"How can the Jesuits settle cases involving Leary but claim they have never read his file? It defies common sense," said Barbara Blaine of Chicago, president of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.

"I have neither need not desire to take a polygraph examination to prove myself truthful," Whitney wrote in a letter to SNAP he released to The Associated Press.

Last week, whitney revealed that a search of old records ordered by a federal judge had found documents indicating Leary was involved in the sexual abuse of boys or young men in the 1960s, and that the Jesuits and Spokane police covered up the abuse at the Jesuit-run school.

The documents were found during an investigation involving the late Rev. Michael Toulouse, a Jesuit who is subject of several child-molestation lawsuits. Toulouse was a philosophy professor at Seattle University who died in 1976.

"The Jesuits are playing a shrewd PR game: Let's release the awful news first, before the court forces us, so it'll look like we're open," said David Clohessy of St. Louis, Mo., SNAP's national director. "They're giving information only because they've been compelled to do so."

Leary, who was raised in Burke, Idaho, was president of Gonzaga from 1961 to 1969. He resigned under pressure from Spokane police, who said he must either leave town or be arrested.

Leary, who died in 1993 at a retirement home for priests near the Gonzaga campus, cited health reasons for his resignation and was transferred to other university jobs in the West, including Utah State University, Santa Clara University in California, the New College of California, and Old College in Reno, Nev.

"We find it nearly impossible to believe your claim that no one had `carefully' read these documents before," the group said in a letter to Whitney.

Despite being aware of Leary's actions, "you and your colleagues chose to fabricate an elaborate scheme to protect the reputation of a sexual predator," the letter said.

"That my predecessors (hardly my colleagues, since I was 11 years old in 1969) fabricated a story to protect Leary's departure is detestable," Whitney wrote. "That you do not believe my presentation of the facts is unfortunate."

It was unclear how many people were molested by Leary. Whitney said the Jesuits had settled directly with two victims from Spokane, for a total of more than $400,000. Two other people had named Leary in lawsuits filed against the Catholic Diocese of Spokane.

"I would like to personally express my deepest sorrow and sympathy to the victims, their families, and to all of you," wrote Spitzer, also a Jesuit.

The Jesuit order, also known as the Society of Jesus, has paid more than $7.5 million to settle scores of sex abuse claims across Washington, Idaho, Oregon, Montana and Alaska in recent years. Dozens more are pending.

Leary joined the Gonzaga faculty in 1955, teaching philosophy and serving as dean of the school of education. In 1966, then-President Lyndon Johnson named him to a council on strengthening small colleges.

A few months after resigning, Leary became a philosophy professor at Utah State University. A year later he became vice president of university relations at Santa Clara.

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