Rev. Irving F. Klister-Assignment

Assignment Record – Rev. Irving F. "Jack" Klister

Summary of Case: Irving "Jack" Klister was ordained a priest of the Superior WI diocese in 1944. He soon rose to prominence with a number of chancery positions, including that of Chancellor, Tribunal member and director of the Catholic Boy Scouts. In the mid-1950s Klister was quietly transferred to El Paso TX where he was an assistant parish priest until his removal in the mid-1960s. From there was sent to a hospital in St. Louis MO for people with "nervous and mental diseases"; it is unclear if he was a patient. Kllister did spend some time in treatment Servants of the Paraclete's Via Coeli center in New Mexico in the mid-1960s. By1968 he was working as a parish priest in the Santa Fe archdiocese.

In a 1989 letter to a federal agent posing as a child pornography dealer, Klister detailed his sexual abuse of a 14-year-old boy in Wisconsin in the 1950s. He was convicted in 1990 on federal child porn charges. From 1992-1994 he was allowed to work as a fill-in priest in parishes throughout the Santa Fe diocese. He died in 1997. In a 2010 lawsuit Klister was accused of having sexually abused numerous boys during his time in El Paso. In a lawsuit settled in 2014 Klister was accused of having repeatedly sexually assaulted a 7- or 8-year-old boy at a New Mexico parish in the early 1980s.

Ordained: 1944
Died: April 19, 1997

Start	Stop	Assignment	Town/Accusations	State	Position	Notes
1944 Superior bishop was William Patrick O'Connor (1941-1946), followed by Albert Gregory Meyer (1946-1953).	1949	Cathedral of Christ the King	Superior	WI	4/4 ,3/3, 2/4	The Cathedral had a grade school with 544-477 students and a high school with 285-321 students.
1944	1949	Our Lady of the Snow	Winndboujou	WI		Parish was a mission of the Cathedral of Christ the King.
1944	1949	St. Anthony	Lake Nebagamon	WI		Parish was a mission of the Cathedral of Christ the King.
1944	1949	Claude Allouez Academy	Superior	WI		This school was attended from the Cathedral, and had 105-82 students.
1945	1947	Secretary for the Pontifical Society for the Propogation of the Faith	Superior	WI
1945	1955	Diocesan Director for the Pontifical Society for the Propogation of the Faith	Superior	WI
1946	1954	Vice-Chancellor	Superior	WI
1954	1955	Chancellor	Superior	WI
1947	1955	Diocesan Tribunal Notary	Superior	WI
1947	1953	Director of St. Vincent de Paul Society	Superior	WI
1947	1954	Director of Catholic Boy Scouts	Superior	WI
1951	1955	Director of Diocesan Council of Catholic Women	Superior	WI
1953	1955	*Diocesan Newspaper-Catholic Herald Citizen, Superior Edition*	Superior	WI	founder
1954	1955	Director of Diocesan Council of Catholic Men	Superior	WI
1949	1953	St. Louis (French)	Superior	WI	1/1	Parish had a school with 174-190 students.
1953 Meyer was succeeded as Superior bishop by Joseph John Annabring (1954-1959).	1954	St. Joseph Children's Home	Superior	WI		Klister apparently lived at the orphanage, which had 73 children.
1954	1955	Nazareth on the Lake	Superior • In a 1989 letter to a federal agent posing as a child pornography dealer, Klister admitted to having sexually abused a 14-year-old boy in WI in the mid-1950s.	WI	Chaplain	This was the Motherhouse and Novitiate of the Sisters of St. Joseph.
1955 El Paso bishop was Sidney Matthew Metzger (1942-1978).	1956	Holy Family	El Paso	TX	3/3	Parish had a school with 182 boys and 185 girls. Klister is noted in the Official Catholic Directories as Absent on Leave from the Superior diocese, a notation that eventually changes to On Duty Outside the Diocese, until his retirement.
1956 Annabring was replaced as Superior bishop by George Albert Hammes (1960-1985).	1964	St. Pius X	El Paso • Per a 2010 lawsuit, Klister was transferred out of El Paso after allegations surfaced that he had molested numerous boys there, mostly at St. Pius.	TX	2/4, 2/3, 2/5	Parish had a school with 264-336 boys and 243-397 girls.
1964	1966					Klister is indexed but not listed in the diocesan pages of the 1965 and 1966 Directories as at St. Pius X in El Paso, TX.
1966 St. Louis archbishop was Joseph Elmer Ritter (1946-1967).	1967	St. Vincent's Hospital of St. Louis	St. Louis	MO		This was a hospital for "nervous and mental diseases", located on the outskirts of St. Louis, in Normandy. It is unclear if Klister was on staff, or a patient.
1967 Superior diocese	1968	Absent on Leave				Klister appears in the 1968 Directory only as Absent on Leave from the Superior diocese.
mid-1960s		Via Coeli	Jemez Springs	NM	patient	Via Coeli was a treatment facility, run by the Servants of the Paraclete, for alcoholic and pedophile priests.
1968 Santa Fe bishop was James Peter Davis (1964-1974).	1970	Cristo Rey, Christ the King Mission-Canada de los Alamos	Santa Fe	NM	3/3, 2/2	Parish had a school with 300-288 students.
1970 Davis was replaced as bishop by Robert Fortune Sanchez (1974-1993).	1985	St. Joseph's Missions-Palo Blanco, Miami, Maxwell; Tinaja	Springer • Klister was accused in a lawsuit settled in 2014 of sexually assaulting a 7- or 8-year-old boy in the early to mid-1980s during confession at St. Vincent de Paul parish, in Maxwell, NM. His accuser said the abuse occurred on at least four occasions.	NM	1/1	Tinaja replaced Miami as a mission of St. Joseph's in 1977.
1970	1977	New Mexico Industrial School		NM		This was a mission of St. Joseph's.
1977	1978	New Mexico Indian School		NM		This was a mission of St. Joseph's
1978	1985	New Mexico Boys School	Springer	NM		This was a mission of St. Joseph's. It was a residential educational, counseling, and treatment program.
1985 Superior bishop was Raphael Michael Fliss (1985-2007).	1992	St. Joseph's	Springer • Klister was convicted in 1990 on federal child pornography charges.	NM		The Superior diocesan pages in the Directories give St. Joseph's in Springer NM as Klister's address, but he's not listed there in the Santa Fe pages.
1992 Santa Fe archbishop was Michael Jarboe Sheehan (1993-).	1994	Retired		NM	relief priest in parishes throughout the archdiocese	Klister is listed as retired in the Santa Fe diocesan pages of the Directories for 1992-1994, and with (SUP) after his name, an indication that he remained a priest of the Superior diocese. He is is not indexed beyond the 1994 Directory. Klister died April 19, 1997. He had been living in Albuquerque.

Sources: Official Catholic Directory (New York: Kenedy & Sons, 1945-1998).

• Funeral Notices and Memorials, Santa Fe New Mexican, April 22, 1997
• Our View, Cause for Another Apology, Duluth News-Tribune, January 22, 2006
• Editorial: Tears of Parish Priest a Sign of Superior Diocese Healing, Duluth News-Tribune, July 1, 2007
• Superior Diocese Noted in New Book on Sex Scandals, Duluth News Tribune, January 16, 2008
• Catholic Diocese of El Paso Faces More Allegations of Sex Abuse, By Diana Washington Valdez, El Paso Times, May 11, 2010
• Church Settles Abuse Case, New Mexican, May 21, 2014

Priests in a Parish: We use the following convention to show a priest's place among the clergy of a parish: 1/2 means that he is the first priest listed in the Official Catholic Directory (usually the pastor) and that there is a total of two priests at the parish. The shorthand 3/4 means that the priest is listed third on a four-priest roster. See our sample page from the Directory.

Note: The Official Catholic Directory aims to report the whereabouts of Catholic priests in the United States on January 1 of the Directory's publication year. Our working assumption is that a priest listed in the Directory for a given year was at the same assignment for part of the previous year as well. However, Kenedy & Sons will sometimes accept updates well into the year of publication. Diocesan clergy records are rarely available to correct this information. The Directory is also sometimes misleading or wrong. We have tried to create an accurate assignment record, given the source materials and their limitations. Assignment records are a work in progress and we are always improving the records that we post. Please email us with new information and corrections.

This assignment record collates Klister's career history as it is represented in the Official Catholic Directory with ... as it is reported in the media. We make no representation regarding the truth of the allegation we report, and we remind our readers that the U.S. legal system presumes that a person accused of or charged with a crime is innocent until proven guilty. Similarly, individuals who may be defendants in civil actions are presumed not to be liable for such claims unless a plaintiff proves otherwise. Admissions of guilt or liability are not typically a part of civil or private settlements. For more information, see our posting policy.

This assignment record was last updated on Sept. 15, 2014.