ILLINOIS//MISSOURI
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
FACT SHEET about credibly accused Oblate predator priests in IL & MO (7/8/2015)
Records about seven predator priests who worked in this area are being released as part of a lawsuit settlement. More litigation against their church supervisors is pending, so more information about them will be disclosed in the months ahead.
Six of them are being “outed” for the first time.
Each one was deemed “credibly accused” by his church supervisors.
Each also worked in Minnesota (largely in the dioceses of Duluth and New Ulm)
Each worked in several states.
Each belongs or belonged to a Belleville-based Catholic religious order known as the Oblates.
Each worked – sometimes for decades – in the St. Louis archdiocese, the Belleville diocese and/or the Springfield-Cape Girardeau diocese.
Six of them worked in the Belleville diocese: Fr. James Vincent Fitzgerald, Fr. Thomas Meyer, Fr. Emil Twardochleb, Fr. Michael Charland, Fr. Orville Munie and Fr. Paul Kabat (More details below.)
Two of them worked in the St. Louis archdiocese:
–Fr. Robert J. Reitmeier (In 1982, he was pastor of Holy Guardian Angels Parish.)
–Fr. James Vincent Fitzgerald (In 1969, he was at St. Michael’s Community in St. Louis.)
Two spent time in southern Missouri (in the Springfield-Cape Girardeau diocese).
–Fr. James Vincent Fitzgerald (In 1987, he was pastor at St. William’s parish in Gainesville.)
–Fr. Michael Charland (From 1959-63, he attended seminary at Our Lady of the Ozarks in Carthage.)
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