By Chris Hack
Daily Southtown
November 3, 2007
http://www.dailysouthtown.com/news/633525,110307olpriest.article
A notorious globe-hopping priest who's been living in Oak Lawn now faces federal charges alleging he molested boys, including one he took with him to religious retreats in Europe and South America.
The Rev. Donald J. McGuire, who was convicted last year of sexual abuse going back to the 1960s, allegedly continued molesting boys as recently as 2003, according to a federal complaint unsealed Friday.
McGuire allegedly fondled boys as young as 9 years old during confession, molested them at retreats around the world, constantly showed them pornography and was a regular customer at a north suburban smut shop well into his 70s.
A longtime member of the Jesuit order, McGuire, 77, has been living at a private residence in the 9500 block of New England Avenue for several years. He had been allowed to remain free while appealing his 2006 conviction for molesting boys on religious retreats near Lake Geneva, Wis., more than 40 years ago.
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| Rev. Donald J. McGuire. |
But McGuire was taken into custody by Wisconsin officials Thursday for failure to keep his sex offender registry information current. He was transferred to federal custody shortly afterward, and on Friday, a federal magistrate in Chicago ordered him to remain locked up pending a detention hearing scheduled for Tuesday.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Julie B. Ruder said McGuire was both a flight risk and danger to the community. But defense attorney Stephen Komie said McGuire should have been released.
"A 77-year-old man isn't going anywhere. He's not running; he's not hiding," Komie told reporters.
McGuire was ordained in 1961 and has long been affiliated with the Jesuits. Until last year, he also was affiliated with a prominent international missionary group and served as a confessor to Mother Teresa.
The Jesuits since 1991 have placed restrictions on McGuire's interaction with minors, according to documents they gave investigators. But he was able to regularly have kids sleep in his quarters at a Jesuit residence and often traveled alone with teenage boys throughout the 1990s and up to 2003, prosecutors said.
One victim told investigators he was molested almost every night between 1999 and 2003 after he was sent at age 13 to live with McGuire at the Jesuit residence in Evanston. According to an affidavit from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement special agent Jennifer Sapper, McGuire took the boy on trips to 12 states as well as Switzerland, Austria, Nicaragua and Mexico.
A second boy told investigators he was molested by McGuire for four to five years beginning in the late 1980s. According to the affidavit, the first incident occurred during confession when the boy was 9.
McGuire allegedly took off his cassock and other religious vestments and said, "Let's put the sacrament of confession aside for a moment and talk. I want to see how you're developing."
After fondling the boy, McGuire said he was just "doing his job," put his cassock back on and performed the rite of absolution, according to the affidavit.
Yet another boy sent to study with McGuire for a year immediately after graduating high school in 1998 said the priest constantly "harped on" sex and showed him pornography and asked what he thought about it.
Investigators have since reviewed McGuire's account at an Evanston video store. His most recent rentals were in 2002 and included "Down Justin Lane" and "Taboo 2001 Sex Odyssey," the affidavit said.
"Father, I'm not doing this anymore," the boy abruptly said one night during a retreat in Minnesota when McGuire wanted to "study" a nudie magazine together. "It's driving me crazy."
According to the boy's account, McGuire became enraged, screaming he had earned two doctorates and was about to be awarded a third.
"What do you think I am," he allegedly said. "Some kind of sick pervert?"
Jesuit leaders followed up on the 1991 order for McGuire to avoid unsupervised situations with kids with a 1995 letter to the priest "amplifying" the supposed restrictions.
"In addition, I ask that you exercise extreme caution to avoid any occasion that would find you alone, behind closed doors, with anyone under the age of 21," the letter stated.
Another internal memo from 2002 noted McGuire's "inappropriate behavior" had resulted in six complaints - and noted he'd been accused of showering with boys, sleeping in the same bed with them, buying them underwear and showing them porn.
Lawsuits from several alleged victims of McGuire's abuse have been filed recently. Earlier this week, the leader of Chicago's Jesuits apologized for not stopping McGuire's alleged abuse; another statement from the order Friday pledged continued cooperation with law enforcement.
"I'm glad he's behind bars and we know he can't hurt anyone now," said Barbara Blaine, president of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. "At the same time, this could have been done sooner — would have been done sooner - if the Jesuits had done the right thing."
Chris Hack may be reached at chack@dailysouthtown.com or (708) 633-5984.
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