[NPR] The first signs of trouble surfaced in 1969, in a case that would eventually result in McGuire's criminal conviction. A 14-year old freshman at Loyola Academy, a high school near Chicago, met Father McGuire when the young priest was assigned to be his counselor. McGuire soon persuaded the teenager and his father to let him board at the school. McGuire said the boy would sleep in a nearby room. But McGuire immediately moved the boy to his own room and "then the abuse turned physical," according to the victim, now 51 years old.
"There's only one bed inside the room, so sleeping quarters were to sleep in the same bed together," the man said in a phone interview.
As recently as 2005, the Jesuits said they had no knowledge of this. But documents suggest they did. The boy had told his parish priest about the abuse. The priest wrote the Jesuits running the school in November 1969, and Pearlman has a copy of that letter. The said the Jesuits told him they would take care of McGuire. They put McGuire on sabbatical, and he did not return to the school. But three years later, the then-teenager realized they had not done enough.
"I was walking down one of the lanes at Loyola University," he told NPR, "and ran smack dab into Father McGuire toting a little boy with him, in the ages of like 13 to 14 years old."
Now, it is being alleged that not only the Jesuits, but the famed Father Fessio knew about this as well, while McGuire gave classes at the Ignatius Institute in San Francisco. The SNAP press release insists that Father Fessio knew about the priest's crimes but did not report it to police. SNAP is an overzealous professional victim's organization, but the Jesuit's are infamous for their capacity to ignore reality in this wise, and permit homosexuals to work in their ranks even when they're sexually active: one might even say, especially.
McGuire worked at USF from 1976 to 1981 where he taught within the St. Ignatius Institute, a conservative liberal arts program run by Fr. Joseph Fessio. Fessio is the US publisher for all of Pope Benedict’s writing (including Benedict's latest book, Light of the World). According to court and public documents, Fessio knew about McGuire's crimes, but never told law enforcement.
We've always been skeptical of Father Fessio. He was promoting Cardinal Schoenborn's books and defended the Danube Prelate when he was defending his decision to allow the blasphemous homosexual art of Hrdlika not only at the Vienna Cathedral Museum, but also in the St. Barbara Chapel itself. Hrdlika was even given a burial on consecrated ground with a momento of his "art" as a gravestone to a choir singing Communist hymns.
H/t: Helen Westover
Another "conservative" Jesuit is also implicated in the coverup:
ReplyDeleteFrom: Let Him Prey: High-Ranking Jesuits Helped Keep Pedophile Priest Hidden
By Peter Jamison
SF Weekly
May 25, 2011
http://www.sfweekly.com/2011-05-25/news/joseph-fessio-donald-mcguire-jesuits-pedophile-priest-peter-jamison/
The trail of quiet complicity leads from San Francisco to unexpectedly high levels. Among the revelations in the documents is that John Hardon, a now-deceased Jesuit priest who is being formally considered for sainthood by the Vatican, advocated on McGuire's behalf after he was caught allegedly molesting one Bay Area boy, and sought to downplay the significance of McGuire's sexual abuse. Records suggest Hardon's involvement might have led to McGuire's premature emergence from psychiatric treatment and resumption of ministerial duties.
Father Fessio did not report to the police for good resaon. As a Jesuit, under obedience, he did the correct thing: he reported to his superiors.
ReplyDeleteOn one side, Father Fessio could not have tangible proof of the crime, on the other, only his superiors could do the appropriate investigations into the matter , and take appropriate disciplinary measures. Father Fessio is one of the few Jesuits who reported. It seems that the Chicago Province was more than lax regarding this sorry affair.
Anon at 620, that's the most reasonable and responsible explanation on this subject yet. It is to be hoped that eventually SNAP will outrun it's moment in the bright lights.
ReplyDelete