A Chicago priest appealing his conviction for molesting two high school boys in Wisconsin in the 1960s has been dismissed from the Society of Jesus, according to a statement from the religious order released Tuesday.
Father Donald J. McGuire was handed the dismissal decree Tuesday morning, according to the statement from the Chicago Province of the Jesuit order.
Tag: Sexual abuse
Giving up on McGuire
“Clearly, the only failsafe mechanism to ensure the public’s safety is to incarcerate McGuire,” wrote Edward W. Schmidt, the Jesuit provincial in Chicago, in a letter to the judge.
This in a story, “Judge allows bond for accused priest OAK LAWN | Convicted of abusing boys, he faces new charges.”
River Forest Dominicans’ troubles
The pastor at St. Vincent Ferrer, River Forest, in the years when a Dominican brother was reportedly abusing kids at St. Vincent Ferrer in the 70s, himself was reportedly an admitted abuser in two Michigan parishes in the 90s, Wednesday Journal reports.
As part of a long and immensely informative article, writer Bill Dwyer interviewed Rev. Thomas Doyle, O.P., a canon lawyer and critic of abusive clergy in a warning against blaming religious order members for the crimes of their fellows:
Though he has been an unstinting critic of what he sees as the Catholic Church’s failures to deal openly and effectively with the issue of pedophile priests, Doyle said he believes the current Dominican vicar provincial, Rev. Michael Mascari, has reacted to the allegations against Hensley and Bryce “in a responsible and competent manner.”
“Fr. Mascari has done his best,” Doyle said by phone from his home in Virginia. “If he hadn’t done that, I wouldn’t hesitate to smear him all over the sidewalk.”
And while Doyle has not hesitated to blast the church’s top leadership for a litany of failures, he said people mistakenly assume that the criminal behavior of many priests must have been known to those who served with them.
People say, “They all had to know,” said Doyle. “Oh no, they didn’t.”
“It’s very possible in a [religious] community to become almost transparent,” he said. Priests are largely free to come and go as they please, he said.
“You can do all sorts of stuff [without people knowing].”
McGuire on way out of priesthood?
Rev. Donald McGuire is being “terminated as a priest,” according to Magistrate Judge Arlander Keys in federal court today in Chicago.
Keys had been given a copy of a letter from the Jesuits to that effect, he told prosecutor and defense attorney.
McGuire will be free on $50,000 bond while awaiting federal trial on charges of abusing minors overseas.
He will stay in the Oak Lawn apartment where he has been staying. It is owned by a lifelong friend who has been named one of two monitors who are to keep him away from minors and them away from him, this over objections by U.S. prosecutor Julie Ruder, who said he can’t be monitored, having “historically and repeatedly ignored whatever restrictions . . . have [been] placed upon him,”
McGuire will apparently have to return first to Wisconsin because of “a detainer that a court there had placed on him,” authorities said, per Chi Trib.
The bishop inquired
The Savannah GA bishop wins praise from the home-town paper for Bishop J. Kevin Boland, who
went to bat for a family alleging abuse by a visiting Jesuit priest.
IF THE Catholic Church in this country had more religious leaders like the [Bishop] Boland, then the abuse scandals that have wracked the church in recent years might have been less painful.
Good for him. However, his letter was not public, nor did he alert law enforcement. Bishop Boland wrote the Jesuits in 2003
on behalf of a Georgia family whose teen-age son had a “relationship” with McGuire. [He] said the young man had “transferred his loyalty from family to Father McGuire” and asked the religious order for help.
It’s unclear what, if anything, the Jesuits did. But give Bishop Boland credit for going to bat for the family and not sweeping anything under the rug.
He passed on the parental complaint, but privately. This entre nous approach has its place. But in 2003 in the matter of clerical abuse?
Such scandals have tested the faith of Catholics in this country. But responsible actions by leaders like Bishop Boland show that some good shepherds are protecting their flocks.
Within limits, yes. At least his letter has been made public now, apparently as part of legally mandated disclosure.
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Comment by Reader D:
Bishop Boland, 68 in 2003, was born and raised in Ireland and Irish seminaries. That’s probably the best he could muster with a good heart living amongst us in the USA. Probably not trained to make waves, but at least has a strong moral compass himself. Better than nothing, I guess.
Closing in on McGuire
The boom is falling. Daily Southtown:
Jesuit priest McGuire now faces federal charges
A notorious Jesuit priest and convicted sex offender living in Oak Lawn now faces federal charges alleging he molested boys he took with him on religious retreats in Europe.
Janesville Gazette:
Under current federal law, the statute of limitations for sexual abuse of a minor extends to the life of the victim.
McGuire, who faces up to 15 years in prison, is expected to appear at the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse this afternoon.
. . . .
He was transferred from the custody of Wisconsin authorities to federal immigration officials because the allegation involved taking a minor outside the country to engage in sexual conduct, authorities said.
. . . .
Lawyers for five men who have sued McGuire for molesting them as minors say at least 10 families have come forward with similar allegations over the last five decades, including five who are not named in any criminal or civil complaints.
[McGuire] was affiliated until as recently as last year with the group Mission Fides, which supported his religious retreats in the United States and across the globe. Among the places he visited were Mother Teresa’s communities in India, the U.S. Attorney’s office said.
Documents provided by the Jesuits said for at least the past 16 years, McGuire has had several restrictions on contact with minors, but kept traveling with boys and young men in their teens and early 20s throughout the 1990s and through 2003, the U.S. Attorney’s office alleged.
The federal charges stemmed from a boy who came with McGuire to Austria and Switzerland. He was 13 when the alleged abuse began in 1999, and it continued until the fall of 2003, the U.S. Attorney’s office alleged.
Janesville Gazette:
Jesuit order severing ties to McGuire
ELKHORN — McGuire’s Jesuit order, the Chicago Province of the Society of Jesus, apparently is severing ties with the retired priest.
In a letter to Judge James Carlson, the Rev. Edward W. Schmidt asks that McGuire be jailed because he cannot be watched closely by the Jesuits.
“Clearly, the only failsafe mechanism to ensure the public’s safety would be to order that McGuire begin to serve his sentence and thus be incarcerated,” according to the letter.
. . . .
Starting in at least 1991, the Jesuits placed special restrictions on McGuire regarding his contact with minors, according to documents the Jesuits provided investigators.
He was ordered repeatedly not to travel with or be alone with any minors, according to the complaint.
A 2002 memo from the Jesuits says six complaints were made about McGuire since 1991 that include having a young man sleep in the same room with him, having a young man wash McGuire’s feet while he showered, buying underwear for a boy, talking incessantly about sex and showing a boy pornography, according to the complaint.
Fr. Schmidt letter to donors:
The Jesuits of the Chicago Province are cooperating proactively and fully with law enforcement authorities in every way we can.
That’s in a release. In an accompanying letter, he gives telephone number, 773 975 6909, and email address, tim@jesuits-chi.org, where he says he will “welcome your questions, thoughts, ideas and feedback regarding Jesuit misconduct issues. Please call, write,” 2050 N. Clark St., Chicago 60614, “or email.”
Finally, again in Chi Trib:
“There’s certainly vindication in the filing of criminal charges given McGuire’s influence and support extends across the country,” said Kevin McGuire, the priest’s nephew and the attorney representing two of the three accusers in civil suits. The third accuser has not filed a civil suit.
“We would hope the filing of these charges by an independent law-enforcement body would bring a certain amount of closure to those who were still wondering.”
McGuire to jail
Rev. Donald McGuire SJ will have to go to jail, having lost his appeal in Walworth County (Wis.) court, the Janesville Gazette reports.
The Rev. Donald J. McGuire is in custody and will have to go to the Wisconsin Court of Appeals if he wishes to overturn a conviction on nearly 40-year-old child molestation charges.
Minutes after Walworth County Judge James Carlson denied every defense motion requesting a new trial, McGuire, 77, was arrested on a warrant for a probation violation.
A Wisconsin Department of Corrections spokesperson said McGuire was arrested for failing to comply with requirements of his sex offender registration.
More:
McGuire had not returned information needed to update his registered status, department of corrections spokesman John Dipko said.
McGuire will likely spend at least three days in jail while the violation is investigated. Probation agents could force him to say longer as a punishment for failing to comply with requirements.
Impact man
Convicted sexual abuser Rev. Donald McGuire, S.J., made his mark in the Deep South, leading Bishop J. Kevin Boland of Savannah GA to write to Chicago Province Jesuits on Sept. 24, 2003, telling what he’d been told by a boy’s parents:
“They are an excellent family and are obviously very concerned because of the relationship their (name redacted) had over a long period of time with Father McGuire. (Name redacted) has transferred his loyalty from family to Father McGuire,” Boland said in the message on official diocesan letterhead. “On a different level, the Diocese of Savannah is also concerned because Father McGuire gave at least three retreats for our potential seminarians at the request of our Vocation Director. By all accounts they were very dynamic and had great impact on those who participated.”
Great impact, yes.
NPR has the McGuire story in grim detail
National Public Radio has a transcript, “Papers: Jesuits Were Warned About Abusive Priest,” that is a must read if you have interest in the Rev. Donald McGuire case. The item includes links to .pdf copies of letters that the most recent accuser’s lawyers unveiled at a news conference on Monday.
The data is damning indeed.
The pattern of covering up
The Jesuit provincial of the Oregon Province about a year ago came clean on a major cover-up of priestly sexual abuse of boys and young men in Spokane in the 60s by the president of Gonzaga University. Jesuits had come across papers while preparing court documents for other cases.
Among the admissions by the provincial, Rev. John D. Whitney, was a sort of smoking gun:
In 1969, Spokane authorities raised new allegations against [Rev. John] Leary and gave him 24 hours to leave the city or face arrest, according to the news release. The release said a leader of the Jesuits in the Northwest created a story that Leary was resigning for health reasons, and Leary left the city.
Leary went briefly to New York, then Massachusetts and was later assigned to positions “throughout the western United States,” according to the release.
“I can only surmise that fear of scandal and of harm to Gonzaga University gripped those Jesuits,” Whitney said. He said he knew of no accusations involving Leary after he left Gonzaga.
The cover-up was “uncharacteristic,” Whitney said in a release.
How does he know that? It was about the time when Fr. Donald McGuire, S.J., was being sent away from Loyola Academy, Wilmette, after being accused, without prejudice to future exposure to boys who caught his eye.
Blithe Spirit 