ILLINOIS
The Rockford River Times
By Melissa Wangall, staff writer
Editor’s note: This article contains sexually explicit material that may not be suitable for all readers. Reader discretion is advised.
All non-clergy members’ names have been changed due to the graphic nature of the alleged abuse and the age of the victim at the time of the alleged abuse.
On Sept. 29, 1991, Father Theodore “Ted” Feely died of cancer in Reno, Nev., at St. Mary’s Regional Care Center. He was 60.
After bouncing around a dozen different Catholic churches throughout his career, Feely ended up at St. Thomas Aquinas Cathedral in Reno.
In 1969, while serving as assistant pastor at St. Anthony’s Church in Rockford, Feely, then 38, allegedly sexually abused 13-year-old Thomas White while on a trip to the Wisconsin Dells. According to White, Feely choked, sodomized and masturbated the young boy, while also feeding him drugs and alcohol. Up until this point, no one but Feely and White knew about the abuse.
When Thomas’s mother told him Father Feely had passed away, he told her “I hope it [Feely’s death] was long, slow, and painful.” Thomas’s mother did not question her son’s hostility.
Feely had been moved 12 times to nine different churches in his 32 years of service, at one point being appointed chaplain for the California Youth Authority. A normal rotation for senior priests is three, six, or nine years, depending on evaluations and needs of the church. For an assistant pastor, terms may be shorter, as a provincial (who assigns missions) may move an assistant pastor as needed.