(Information for the following was provided to the National Association of Chiefs of Police by the Department of Homeland Security.)
A defrocked Catholic priest who once served as a spiritual advisor to Mother Teresa was sentenced in Chicago on Wednesday to 25 years in federal prison for sexually molesting a boy on several interstate and international religious retreats.
This sentence resulted from an investigation conducted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Illinois.
Donald J. McGuire, 78, from Chicago, was sentenced Feb 11 by U.S. District Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer to 325 years in prison. Judge Pallmeyer stated in court that she exceeded the federal sentencing guidelines to send a message to those who think they can abuse their positions of power in the community.
"I want any such person to know the system of justice, and this judge personally, finds it absolutely abhorrent," Judge Pallmeyer said of McGuire's misconduct. She added that McGuire had committed a horrific and monstrous crime and a very serious sin.
Numerous victims and their families were present in court and described how McGuire's abuse had robbed them of their innocence and ruined their lives. Some victims described suffering years of depression as a result of the abuse, while others confronted McGuire and demanded an apology for abusing his position of authority.
McGuire was convicted in October by a federal jury on one count of traveling to Switzerland and Austria in December 2000 to engage in sexual activity with a minor, and one count of traveling to Buffalo, Minn., in August 2001 for the same purpose with the same victim. McGuire, a former spiritual advisor to Mother Teresa, was ordained in 1961 and was affiliated with the Chicago Province of the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits) until he was defrocked from the priesthood last February.
During the three-week trial last fall, five men testified that the former Jesuit priest had exploited and molested them when they were teenagers as they traveled with him on religious retreats.
According to court documents, between the mid-1990s and 2003, McGuire's primary residence was at Canisius House, a Jesuit priest community in Evanston, Ill. Since at least 1991, McGuire has had a number of restrictions placed on him concerning interaction with minors.
According to multiple witnesses, however, McGuire continued to travel alone with boys in their teens and early 20s throughout the 1990s and through 2003, and sexually molested males during this time, including the victim ("Dominick") who was 14 years old at the time he accompanied McGuire on a retreat to Switzerland and Austria in December 2000.
Dominick testified in court that McGuire sexually molested him between 1999 and the fall of 2003, and that he was 13 years old when the sexual abuse began. He also testified that he accompanied McGuire on numerous interstate and overseas trips, and that McGuire sexually abused him on nearly all the trips. According to Dominick, the sexual abuse ended when the Jesuits ordered McGuire to move from Canisius House to another residence in Chicago.
"For a priest to abuse his position of trust in the community against innocent children is despicable," said Gary Hartwig, special agent-in-charge of the ICE Office of Investigations in Chicago. "All children have an absolute right to grow up free from the fear of sexual exploitation. Today's sentence shows that ICE will go the extra mile to protect the innocence of the most vulnerable segment of our society - our kids."
McGuire's investigation and arrest are part of Operation Predator, a national ICE initiative that protects children by investigating and presenting for prosecution pedophiles, Internet predators, human traffickers, international sex tourists, and other predatory criminals. Since Operation Predator was launched in July 2003, ICE agents have arrested more than 11,600 child predators and sex offenders nationwide, including more than 600 in Illinois.
Jim Kouri, CPP is currently fifth vice-president of the National Association of Chiefs of Police and he's a staff writer for the New Media Alliance (thenma.org). In addition, he's the blog editor for the House Conservatives Fund's weblog. Recently, the editors Examiner.com appointed him as their Law Enforcement Examiner. Kouri also serves as political advisor for Emmy and Golden Globe winning actor Michael Moriarty.
He's former chief at a New York City housing project in Washington Heights nicknamed "Crack City" by reporters covering the drug war in the 1980s. In addition, he served as director of public safety at a New Jersey university and director of security for several major organizations. He's also served on the National Drug Task Force and trained police and security officers throughout the country. Kouri writes for many police and security magazines including Chief of Police, Police Times, The Narc Officer and others. He's a news writer for NewswithViews.com and PHXnews.com. He's also a columnist for AmericanDaily.Com, MensNewsDaily.Com, MichNews.Com, and he's syndicated by AXcessNews.Com. He's appeared as on-air commentator for over 300 TV and radio news and talk shows including Oprah, McLaughlin Report, CNN Headline News, MTV, Fox News, etc. His book Assume The Position is available at Amazon.Com. Kouri's own website is located at http://jimkouri.us
Comments
And what of those who were supposed to be supervising this man, who continued to allow him to groom and to travel with young men whom he abused?
Where is justice for them? What of their debt to society?
This is the problem with making cult movements out of religious 'founders' and their organizations. They are always as hollow inside as any other human being...including you and me. What is wrong with everybody that we all need to be constantly in search of people who seem to be "in touch" with God? YOU are in touch with God. You don't need another human being to find that kind of worth witin yourself. Why can't we learn that?
We won't know the whole story about what the Jesuits knew about McGuire and when they knew it until this religious community is forced to make their records and files on him available.
It is the same thing with dioceses.
Like the Catholic Diocese of Wilmington, Delaware and the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania too many dioceses have sought to seal all records, files and court proceedings by order of the courts.
This hardly goes along with the accountability and transparency that the bishops promised in 2002 but has been so slow in coming.
Father Angel Mariano, S.J. was arrested about midnight Sept. 21, 1998, in Campbell, Calif., near San Jose, Calif. when a police officer caught him in a sex act with a 17-year-old student in a parked car. According to police reports, Mariano arranged to meet two teenagers by posing as a 25-year-old woman on an Internet chat room. He wore lipstick and rouge when he met the boys.... Mariano was removed without any explanation.
Asked why parishioners at Holy Trinity were not made aware of the reasons for Mariano's departure, Provincial Father Thomas Smolich, S.J. (who in 2009 has a Jesuit office one-mile from the White House) said: "Why should they? This is an Internet cruising thing. This is anonymous sex. This doesn't involve people at the parish. It wasn't a priest thing. He wasn't dressed in a collar."
Glenn Bunting, "Lawsuit Ends Silence on Abuse at Jesuit Retreat," Los Angeles Times, March 24, 2002
This makes me so happy. It's about time these priests go to prison. When will we get the rest of them? Make all the files from every priest available to the authorities. Then we'll see.
The "enablers" for Mcguire are his order the jesuits. They appear to be distancing themselves from Mcguire and all their known jesuit perps who get caught and are brought to justice.
My friend and great church researcher Jay says the jesuits have been kicked out of numerous countries.
I think that just kicking them out no longer is good enough.. they need to implode and go extinct because they not only use the name of Jesus christ to commitevil, they appear to not even know the God they claim to serve..or the difference between right and wrong.
I believe the jesuits and whole catholic church and their manipulation and exploitation of our laws and our resources and programs for needy and tax payers has caused catastrophic financial, spiritual, pychological physical etc damages to our citizens and our country.
in fact i believe the high and mighty jesuits have become the "riffraff" they look down on from the steps of their universities and churches.
With a "spiritual advisor" like Mcguire, no wonder Mother Theresa questioned her 'church.' She would have made an excellent priest! Tom Barnes is right, God is in touch with each of us all the time. All we have to do is listen...
www.bishop-accountability.org
/abusetracker for daily verified & vetted reporting on the USCCB (Unremoved Sexual Criminal Cabal Bishops) & Roman "La Cosa Nostra" Curia whose motto remains = ISAIAH 28:15! THE SOLUTION? "STOP DONATING LAITY!" as St. Peter Damien correctly asserted. Fiat Lux & Veritas! Albino Luciani, MURDERED POPE, Not Smiling, From Heaven
Jim,
Thank you for the excellent report. It's good to know there is some justice in this world. And, as Greg said, the people who enabled McGuire also need to be held accountable.
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