By Trey Bundy
Bay Citizen
April 1, 2011
http://www.baycitizen.org/crime/story/survivors-catholic-church-enabled-sex/
 |
| St. Ignatius Church in San Francisco, where Father Donald McGuire was a priest |
A small but angry group of abuse survivors gathered outside St. Ignatius Catholic Church at the University of San Francisco Friday to express outrage over the Jesuit school’s failure to expose a now-convicted predatory pedophile priest who used to teach there.
Documents that surfaced in a Chicago court this week indicate church leaders ignored or hid evidence, dating back to the 1960s, that Father Donald McGuire had sexually abused teenage boys during a career that spanned four decades.
McGuire, 80, worked as a teacher and spiritual advisor at USF from 1976 to 1981 before being fired for “highly questionable acts.” Still, according to documents and interviews, he was allowed to continue taking children and teenagers on cross-country retreats where he reportedly shared beds with and possibly abused minors.
On Friday, members of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, said that McGuire is just one of many priests the church has protected over the last 50 years, most of whom are not in prison. Worse, they said, because of an ongoing church cover-up, children continue to be in danger.
“We’re protesting the church that enabled them, protected them, sheltered them and harbored them for 35 years, knowing they were predators,” said Joey Piscitelli, who was abused by his priest when he was 13 and is now the Northern California director of SNAP. “That includes the priest that raped me as a child, who is still roaming freely now in San Francisco.”
McGuire is currently serving a federal prison sentence after being convicted of several counts of sex abuse in 2006 and 2008.
While high school choirs rehearsed inside St. Ignatius Friday afternoon, six abuse survivors and one former priest stood in the blistering sun, holding up photos of victims and their abusers. They told reporters that, despite the church’s contention that it is rooting out rogue priests, Catholic children in San Francisco still aren’t safe.
 |
| Tim Lennon holding a photo of himself circa the year of his abuse |
“They don’t warn kids about these priests,” said Piscitelli, now 55. “I’m pissed that the church allows these people to access children without warning. There’s a bunch of priests in SF right now who have been sued for raping kids, and they haven’t posted a list.”
SNAP official Tim Lennon, who was raped by his priest when he was 12, said that in the five decades since his abuse, his faith has been replaced by righteous anger.
“I think there’s great crimes, systematic cover-ups going back decades by the church hierarchy and that we need to protect children and reach out to survivors that may be suffering alone,” he said, adding the church has a long way to go toward protecting kids and making amends. “What is important to the church is not the same thing as what helps a survivor heal,” he said. “And we’re interested in healing and protecting children.”
Church officials could not be reached for comment.
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.