BELLEVILLE (IL)
Belleville News Democrat
December 8, 2018
BY Kelsey Landis
A priest with ties to a parish in East St. Louis has been named on a list of Jesuits accused of sexually abusing children.
Chester E. Gaiter died in August 2010 at the age of 70, but was assigned to five schools and parishes in the St. Louis area, including at St. Joseph’s Parish in East St. Louis.
The Jesuits U.S. Central and Southern Province released the names of dozens of priests with ties to the St. Louis area.
Gaiter served at St. Joseph’s Church for a year beginning in 1993, according to a previous report by the Belleville News-Democrat.
The Jesuits estimate Gaiter abused children between the 1970s and 1980s. He was never removed from the ministry. At the time the allegations were made, Gaiter was mentally incapacitated.
In 2007, a man accused Gaiter and three other priests of molesting him, according to a report in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch from the time. Gaiter had already retired when he was accused of the abuse. Three of the priests, including Gaiter, were teachers at Cardinal Ritter High School in St. Louis.
The archdiocese settled that case settlement with payments totaling $140,000 and a written apology to the victim and his family from the archdiocese.
St. Joseph Church in East St. Louis closed in 2006, according to the Belleville Diocese.
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