Rev. Bruce Duncan MacArthur-Assignment

Assignment Record– Rev. Bruce Duncan MacArthur

Summary of Case: Sued 2003 by one woman. Other victims known. Arrested January 2006; charged with abuse of three girls at Beaver Dam WI hospital in 1960s. Admitted abusing thirty girls. Diocese knew of behavior in 1963. Sent to prison in TX in 1978 for abuse of 54-year-old disabled woman who was a nursing home patient and then reassigned as priest. Suits filed July 2007 and September 2007 in WI against Milwaukee archdiocese and Sioux Falls SD diocese by two women, under new WI Supreme Court ruling. WI Supreme Court also ruled that statute of limitations stopped when MacArthur left the state. Convicted and sentenced in August 2008 to to 6 months in jail and 10 years probation, and to serve an additional month every year for 6 years. MacArthur died in February 2012, in TX.

Ordained: 1953
Died: February 2012

Start	Stop	Assignment	Town/Accusations	State	Position	Notes
1953 Sioux Falls bishop was William Otterwell Brady (1939-1956)	1955	St. Lawrence's	Milbank	SD	2/2	Parish had a school with 135-171 students.
1955 Lambert Anthony Hoch replaced Brady as bishop (1956-1978)	1957	Sacred Heart	Yankton	SD	3/3	Parish had a school with 301 students.
1957 Washington DC archbishop was Patrick Aloysius O'Boyle (1947-1973)	1959	Catholic University	Washington	DC
1959	1960	State Hospital	Yankton	SD	Chaplain
1960	1963	St. Peter the Apostle	Platte • Sexually abused girls at this parish. When some of them told their parents, Bishop Hoch sent MacArthur away for treatment. (Argus Leader (Sioux Falls, SD) June 22, 2003) Five women accused MacArthur in a 2004 lawsuit of having sexually abused them as children from 1961-1963 in the Yankton and Platte areas. (Associated Press State & Local Wire July 19, 2004)	SD	1/1	MacArthur was treated in 1963 at Via Coeli in Jemez Springs New Mexico. This was a center for deviant priests. (Argus Leader [Sioux Falls, SD] May 22, 2003)
1960	1963	St. Willibrord's	Robey	SD		This was a mission of St. Peter the Apostle in Platte.
1963	1965	St. William's	Ramona • MacArthur was pulled by Hoch from this parish and sent to Milwaukee after another complaint of child sexual abuse. (Argus Leader (Sioux Falls, SD) May 22, 2003)	SD	1/1
1963	1965	St. Ann's	Badus	SD		This was a mission of St. William's in Ramona.
1965 Milwaukee archbishop was William Edward Cousins (1958-1977)	1966	St. Philip Neri	Milwaukee	WI		The 1966 Directory's Sioux Falls diocesan pages list MacArthur as this WI parish, but he is not listed there in the Milwaukee diocesan pages.
1966	1970	St. Joseph's Hospital	Beaver Dam • Named in a 2003 as having sexually abused a girl, whom he met as a patient at the hospital, from the time she was 10 years old and until she was in high school. (Argus Leader (Sioux Falls, SD) May 22, 2003) Sioux Falls bishop Carlson said at the time of the lawsuit that the diocese had records of six allegations against MacArthur. (Associated Press State & Local Wire July 19, 2004) Additional women have come forward to report sexual abuse by MacArthur while they were hospitalized as children at St. Joseph's. (Fond Du Lac Reporter January 4, 2008)	WI	Chaplain
1970	1971	St. John de Britto	Britton	SD	1/1
1971	1973	St. Boniface	Seneca	SD	1/1
1971	1973	Gettysburg Memorial Hospital	Gettysburg	SD	Chaplain
1973 El Paso bishop was Sidney Matthew Metzger (1942-1978)	1977	St. Patrick's Cathedral	El Paso	TX	7/7 In residence.	The 1974 Directory is the only one that both indexes and lists MacArthur as at St. Patrick's. the 1975-1979 Directories index him but do not list him there in the El Paso diocesan pages. The parish had a school.
1977	1979	Prison	• MacArthur spent more than two years in prison four attempting to rape a disabled 54-year-old female resident of the Four Seasons Nursing Home in El Paso. (El Paso Times January 21, 2006)		inmate
1979 San Antonio bishop was Patrick Fernandez Flores (1979-2004)	1984	St. James the Apostle	San Antonio • San Antonio Archdiocese announced 6/14 that it had received a credible allegation of abuse of a minor female at St. James Parish in the late 1970s	TX	2/3, 2/2	Parish had a school with 298-369 students. The 1981 and 1982 Directories' Sioux Falls pages index MacArthur as at St. James, but he is not listed there in the San Antonio diocesan pages.
1980	1982	St. Dominic's	San Antonio	TX		Per San Antonio archdiocese, June 22, 2014.
1984 Brownsville bishop was John Joseph Fitzpatrick (1971-1991)	1985	St. Joseph's	Brownsville	TX	4/4	The other priests were of the O.M.I. (Oblates of Mary Immaculate) order.
1985 Galveston-Houston bishop was Joseph Anthony Fiorenza ((1984-2006)	1986	Immaculate Conception	Houston	TX		Another O.M.I. parish. The Directory's Sioux Falls diocesan pages list him as there, but he's not listed there in the Galveston-Houston diocesan pages.
1986 Victoria bishop was Charles Victor Grahmann (1982-1989)	1987		Port Lavace	TX		The Directory's Sioux Falls pages list him as at Box 87, Port Lavace TX.
1987	1988		Kalabo W.P.	Zambia
1988	1989	Catholic Relief Services	San Antonio	TX
1989	1990	On duty outside the diocese				The 1990 Directory's Sioux Falls diocesan pages do not indicate where MacArthur was on duty.
1990 El Paso bishop was Raymundo Joseph Pena (1980-1994)	1991		Clint	TX
1991 San Angelo bishop was Michael David Pfeifer, O.M.I. (1985- )	1992	St. Mary's	San Angelo	TZ		The address given in the Directory's Sioux Falls pages is for this parish, although MacArthur is not listed there in the San Angelo diocesan pages. After 1992, MacArthur is no longer indexed in the Directories.
1992	2012					MacArthur no longer served in ministry after 1992. He lived in New Mexico and in Texas for a time. He eventually became a resident of a surpervised facility for priests in St. Louis, MO. He pleaded guilty in 2008 to having sexually abused three young girls as a hospital chaplain in Wisconsin in the late 1960s. He was sentenced to six months in jail, then one month per year for the six following years. Per a victim's request, he was also to have ten two hour private conversations with her. (TMJ4 August 15, 2008) MacArthur died in TX in Feburary 2012.

Source: Official Catholic Directory (New York: Kenedy & Sons, 1954-1992).

Priests in a Parish: We use the following convention to show a priest's place among the clergy of a parish: 1/2 means that he is the first priest listed in the Official Catholic Directory (usually the pastor) and that there is a total of two priests at the parish. The shorthand 3/4 means that the priest is listed third on a four-priest roster. See our sample page from the Directory.

Note: The Official Catholic Directory aims to report the whereabouts of Catholic priests in the United States on January 1 of the Directory's publication year. Our working assumption is that a priest listed in the Directory for a given year was at the same assignment for part of the previous year as well. However, Kenedy & Sons will sometimes accept updates well into the year of publication. Diocesan clergy records are rarely available to correct this information. The Directory is also sometimes misleading or wrong. We have tried to create an accurate assignment record, given the source materials and their limitations. Assignment records are a work in progress and we are always improving the records that we post. Please email us with new information and corrections.

This assignment record collates MacArthur's career history as it is represented in the Official Catholic Directory with allegations as reported in the media. We make no representation regarding the truth of the allegation we report, and we remind our readers that the U.S. legal system presumes that a person accused of or charged with a crime is innocent until proven guilty. Similarly, individuals who may be defendants in civil actions are presumed not to be liable for such claims unless a plaintiff proves otherwise. Admissions of guilt or liability are not typically a part of civil or private settlements. For more information, see our posting policy.

This assignment record was last updated Deember 3, 2015.