BishopAccountability.org
	Wineke: Church Abuse Cover-Up Is Disturbing Wisconsin State Journal November 9, 2007 http://www.madison.com/wsj/home/column/index.php?ntid=256019&ntpid=1 The latest priest to be caught up in the ongoing child abuse scandal is … Mother Teresa's spiritual director. Honest to God! The mind boggles! The Rev. Donald McGuire, 77, a Chicago Jesuit who traveled the world giving spiritual retreats — often accompanied by one teenage boy or another — was charged last week with abusing one of those boys on trips to Switzerland and Austria. In fact, the boy said he was sexually molested by the famed priest in 12 states and six countries. This is the same McGuire who was convicted a year ago in Walworth County on charges stemming from the 1960s of abusing teenage boys from Loyola Academy in Wilmette during trips to the Lake Geneva area. This week, a federal judge ruled he could remain out of jail and under house arrest in Oak Lawn, Ill. Mother Teresa's favored priest? A pervert? It certainly seems that way. As usual, however, the misdeeds of an errant individual aren't the real scandal of this story. I have yet to be convinced that Roman Catholic priests are any more likely to abuse kids than are school teachers, Boy Scout leaders or Protestant preachers. There are a lot of priests around the world and not many of them have been accused of being anything other than holy men of God. No, the real scandal isn't McGuire. The real scandal was also revealed this week. McGuire's superiors in the Jesuit order had been informed of his misdeeds over and over and over again. Not only did they not stop him, but, when asked by prosecutors during their investigation of his activities, those superiors denied knowing anything about his proclivities. But attorneys for boys who say they were molested released copies of letters parents sent to the Jesuits in 1993, 1994, 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2003. Note those dates. They are not from the 1960s, a time when the nature of sexual abuse may have been less well understood than it is today. This was a contemporary crime. Over the years, I have become inured to the embarrassing spectacle of diocesan bishops who have covered up the crimes of their priests. I wasn't even stunned to see the Archdiocese of Los Angeles sell a modest convent populated by elderly nuns in order to help pay legal judgments for the misdeeds of L.A. priests. Still, I don't know why, but I somehow thought the Jesuits would be above that sort of thing. Wrong. Like their diocesan counterparts, the Jesuits fudged. They sent McGuire letters telling him to be more careful, to refrain from traveling with boys, to behave himself. You'd think sooner or later these shepherds would stop proclaiming that the wisdom of Christ is funneled through their ranks. Contact: bwineke@madison.com
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