Snap: Investigate Priest Sex Abuse Coverup, by Zach Christman, NBC Chicago, April 1, 2011

Snap: Investigate Priest Sex Abuse Cover-up

By Zach Christman
NBC Chicago
April 1, 2011

http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/SNAP-Wants-Investigation-into-Jesuit-Priest-Sex-Abuse-Conspiracy-Donald-McGuire-118952069.html

Defrocked Jesuit Donald McGuire has been convicted of abusing children. Now, SNAP wants to know if his superiors helped him cover it up.

Did a Chicago-based order of Jesuit priests engage in a decades-long cover-up to hide child sex abuse?

Those allegations came out in court documents filed this week, and on Wednesday, activists called for an investigation.

The documents are part of a civil suit filed by three men who were abused by Father Donald McGuire. They include letters dating as far back as the 1960's, in which Jesuit leaders talk about removing McGuire from Chicago’s Loyola Academy, after a boy accused him of sex abuse.

McGuire was removed from the school, but the reasons were not made public. He stayed a priest, and continued to abuse more boys. The Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests contends the abuse was even happening while McGuire worked directly with Mother Theresa.

"The Jesuits knew, they could have stopped it, they should have stopped it, but they did not stop it. And now, those Jesuit superiors should be held accountable," said SNAP's president, Barbara Blaine.

McGuire was only removed from the ministry after he was accused again, in 2005. He was arrested and ultimately convicted on those child sex charges, and sentenced to prison.

SNAP is now calling for Cook County prosecutors to investigate whether there was a full-blown conspiracy to keep McGuire’s misdeeds from going public.