Christianity Today = Child molestation
Sunday, April 13 2008 @ 04:47 AM CDT Views: 240
Sex suit against priest also accuses Jesuits of culpability
Order didn't stop abusive cleric, Nevada man says
By Steve Schmadeke
New accusations of sexual abuse were leveled Thursday against a former Jesuit priest who, after being convicted in Wisconsin of child molestation, is facing abuse charges in Arizona and in federal court here.
In a lawsuit filed Thursday, a Nevada man, 27, accused the recently defrocked Rev. Donald McGuire, 77, of abusing him repeatedly for nearly a year after his parents sent him to Chicago from Georgia in 1998 to help the prominent priest with his ministry.
McGuire, a former spiritual director for Mother Teresa, showed pornography to the boy, then 17, and forced him to provide full-body massages, according to the lawsuit.
The six-count lawsuit also accuses Jesuit leaders in Chicago of negligence, fraud and intentionally inflicting emotional distress. The Nevada man is the sixth accuser to sue, his attorneys said.
"The Jesuit officials here in Chicago, who are in charge of [McGuire], are as criminal and responsible as this man who couldn't control himself," said Jeff Anderson, one of the plaintiff's attorneys. "They allowed this wolf to prey on the innocent and vulnerable."
The Nevada man's attorneys said they had shared the allegations with Cook County prosecutors. A state's attorney spokeswoman said Thursday that she was not aware of the new allegations and that the head of the sexual crimes unit was out of town.
Stephen Komie, McGuire's attorney, said he could not speak specifically about the complaint because he had not seen it, but said his client has denied all allegations of abuse.
McGuire is being held without bail by sheriff's police at Cermak Hospital after suffering a "cardiac episode" the day he was arrested on the Arizona charges, Komie said.
His client blames the episode on circumstances of his arrest—being startled by an Arizona police officer pounding on the door of his Oak Lawn home and then being placed into handcuffs. Komie said the arresting officers refused to take him to the hospital. An ambulance was called to Central District headquarters and McGuire was taken to Mercy Hospital, he said.
McGuire is not likely to go to trial on the federal charges until September and has a May 1 hearing on extradition to Arizona, Komie said.
A Jesuit spokesman said the order's attorney had not yet seen the lawsuit so he could not comment.
The Nevada man's parents told Jesuit officials in a 2000 letter that McGuire had exposed their son to pornography and talked to him "about sexual matters every waking minute," according to a copy released by the man's attorneys.
http://www.chicagotribune.com
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