EL PASO (TX)
El Paso Times
Darren Meritz
El Paso Times
Saturday, January 21, 2006
A former priest who during the 1970s was convicted of attempting to rape a woman in El Paso was arrested Friday outside of St. Louis at a church-run housing and recovery center.
Bruce MacArthur, 83, was arrested for allegedly molesting Judy DeLonga, who in 2003 filed a civil suit against the former priest for sex crimes she alleges he committed against her beginning when she was about 10 years old in the 1960s in Wisconsin.
Details MacArthur provided in his deposition led to his arrest Friday, said Jeff Anderson, lawyer for DeLonga. A deposition summary indicated MacArthur admitted molesting and raping a number of women and girls during the 1960s and 1970s.
"The bishops that protected him and helped him with knowledge (that he was) a sex offender are every bit as criminal as he is," Anderson said.
MacArthur served at parishes throughout the United States and Africa. He performed duties at St. Patrick Cathedral in El Paso from 1974 to 1977, and was indicted in February 1978 in the attempted rape of a crippled patient at the Four Seasons Nursing Home on Murchison Drive, archives of the El Paso Times indicate.