Hundreds of Irish Catholic priests ‘to be implicated in child abuse report’

Hundreds of Catholic priests are expected to be implicated in alleged child abuse in Ireland in a major report released today.

Telegraph | May 20, 2009

By Sarah Knapton

The Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse has spent nine years looking into allegations from thousands of former pupils of state schools and orphanages, some which date back more than 60 years.

It is due on Wednesday while a second report looking into how sex abuse complaints were handled by the Catholic Church will be published by the commission in the summer.

It is thought some 500 priests have been implicated in the abuse allegations.

Many thousands of children suffered at the hands of religious orders such as the Christian Brothers and Sisters of Mercy at industrial schools and orphanages. Most of the children were born outside wedlock or came from large impoverished families that could not afford to feed them.

The commission was founded in 2000 following a documentary for Irish television which claimed there was widespread sexual, physical and emotional abuse within Catholic institutions.

Mary Raffety, who produced the programme said the abuse suffered was ‘way off the scale’ and ‘designed to break children.’

At Easter, the Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, said the report would “shock us all”.

“It is likely that thousands of children or young people across Ireland were abused by priests in the period under investigation and the horror of that abuse was not recognised for what it is,” he said during his Holy Thursday homily.

In 2003 the Irish Government offered compensation to victims of institutionalised child abuse in a move expected to cost £725 million.

The Comptroller and Auditor General said the estimated bill was based on just 10,000 of the 150,000 victims coming forward.

If all survivors claimed, the Republic could face a bill about £10.8 billion.

In the second report, due for publication in July, the Catholic Church is likely to face heavy criticism for trying to cover up abuse when it emerged.

In some instances the church simply moved abusive priests from parish to parish to avoid scandal.

“The way the Church handled the scandals, as we now know, was not exemplary to put it mildly,” said Father Vincent Twomey, Professor Emeritus of Moral Theology at the National University of Ireland.

New guidelines are now in place for the protection of children. In 2006 the the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church was founded.

As late as 2008, a report revealed child protection practices in the Co Cork diocese were inadequate and dangerous, thereby potentially exposing vulnerable young people to further harm.

In January this year every Catholic bishop, missionary society and religious congregation in Ireland was asked to sign a written commitment to implement agreed child protection guidelines. But many of the victims still believe the church has too much power and influence to ever be fully regulated.

In 2006 it was discovered Fr Maurice Dillane, 73, had fathered a child with his 31-year-old girlfriend.

Bishop Pat Buckley said an extremely conservative estimate was that one in 10 of the 5,000 Catholic priests in Ireland enjoyed regular sex with women and some even referred to their clerical collar as the “bird catcher”.

When the statistics were widened to take in practising homosexuals, Bishop Buckley said up to 40 per cent of the Catholic clergy in Ireland were sexually active.

The scandals have caused a rapid decline in priest joining the Irish Catholic Church. Just three priests joined the diocese of Dublin last year.

A spokesman for the Commission said: “The Investigation Committee and Confidential Committee of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse have prepared their reports and presented them to the Commission.

“The work of the Commission has taken longer than expected.

“The Commissioners are very conscious of the importance and urgency of the report and they appreciate the patience shown by participants and by the public and their understanding of the difficulty and complexity of the Commission’s undertaking.”

Jesuits’ accusers from 3 states gather in Portland

UPI | Mar 5, 2009

PORTLAND, Ore. – People from Idaho, Oregon and Washington who claim they were sexually abused by Jesuits gathered in Portland this week.

The Oregon Province of the Society of Jesus filed for bankruptcy on Feb. 17. Plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the order met Tuesday with M. Vivienne Popperl, a lawyer whose responsibilities include selecting a creditors’ committee to represent the group of accusers in bankruptcy proceedings, The Portland Oregonian reported.

Some of the accusers also told their stories to the newspaper.

Alberta Sena, like many in the group, is an American Indian who grew up on the Nez Perce Reservation in Idaho. She described being fondled by a grandfatherly priest when she was 8 or 9 years old.

“It takes a lot of strength and courage to come forward,” she said. “To those who haven’t yet … it’s OK. Strength comes in different forms.”

Two brothers now in their 60s described being molested decades ago by a Jesuit priest affiliated with Seattle University. He would come to dinner at their house, they said, and figure out ways to get the boys alone.

Jesuits’ Northwest accusers detail sex abuse claims

The Oregonian | Mar 3, 2009

by Bryan Denson

From across the Northwest, men and women who accuse Jesuit priests of past sexual abuse jetted into Portland on Tuesday to share their suffering and represent the interests of more than 160 people with active lawsuits against the region’s order.

They came from different backgrounds, from the suburbs of Seattle to the reservation lands of Washington and Idaho. Different ages. Different ethnicities. But their stories of priests grooming them for abuse, systematically stealing their innocence, sounded painfully similar.

Accusers appeared in a closed-door meeting with M. Vivienne Popperl, an attorney for the U.S. Trustee for Oregon, who would pick a seven-person creditors committee to represent the interests of accusers in the Jesuits’ bankruptcy.

The region’s Jesuits, a Roman Catholic order formally known as the Oregon Province of the Society of Jesus, filed bankruptcy Feb. 17 in the wake of increasing legal exposure to sex abuse lawsuits brought against priests. Since 2001, the Portland-based province — which covers Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana and Alaska — has settled more than 200 legal claims, paying out $25 million.

Lawyers for the Jesuits declined to comment about Tuesday’s selection of a creditors committee. Jesuit leaders have said they filed for reorganization under Chapter 11 to help the province resolve its pending claims, maintain its ministries and help victims of priest abuse to heal.

Many more claimants are expected to step forward as news of the bankruptcy — and a deadline on future claims — spreads across the nation, said Tim Kosnoff, a Seattle lawyer who represents more than 40 claims against the Jesuits. Kosnoff and other plaintiffs’ attorneys say they expect legal notices alone to cost millions of dollars.

Jesuit priests’ abuse of boys and girls ranged from fondling to rape, he said, and the decades have not erased the pain, the memories and the occasional flashbacks.

“Now, out of necessity, they’re going to be forced to come forward,” said Kosnoff.

Four came to The Oregonian with their stories Tuesday, shortly before their appearance before Popperl.

Alberta Sena recalled the summer she lost her innocence in the early 1970s. She was just a child of 8 or 9 growing up on the Nez Perce Reservation in Lapwai, Idaho, when her mom encouraged her to take first Communion in the Catholic Church.

Father A.J. Ferretti, whom the children called “Father Freddy,” was a gentle, white-haired man. Grandfatherly. He was a man of God, someone to be trusted.

Sena recalled a day frolicking with friends in and out of the church, a game of hide-and-seek. Somehow she ended up in Ferretti’s living quarters. She recalled the priest saying the other children had to go home. Now it was just them.

It was dark, she recalled through tears, and she was naked. Ferretti fondled her, she said, as they sat in a chair in his kitchen.

Sena, now a 43-year-old bookkeeper at the Flying J truck stop in Lewiston, Idaho, is one of three plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed last January in the Nez Perce County courthouse against the region’s Jesuit order and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Boise.

“It takes a lot of strength and courage to come forward,” said Sena. “To those who haven’t yet … it’s OK. Strength comes in different forms.”

Although many of the sex abuse suits have been brought by Native American children, some of the Jesuits are accused of inveigling their way into the homes of white kids and their parents in suburban locales.

Two brothers in their 60s were among those who told their stories to The Oregonian on Tuesday. They came from what they described as a good middle-class neighborhood in the Seattle suburbs. Both accuse Father Michael Toulouse, who operated out of Seattle University, of worming his way into their family circle.

Their intensely devout parents, who believed that Toulouse was a representative of God on Earth, invited the priest to dinner and long evenings of philosophical discussions.

“My parents were charmed,” said one of the men, who did not care to be identified in this story. At the end of many visits, the priest would suggest some pretext for spending time alone with them — a quick trip for hamburgers or a weekend at the parish retreat.

“As a 9-year-old,” he said, “once you start hiding it, there’s no way out.”

Alaska Natives expand sex-abuse suit against Jesuits

Twenty more plaintiffs and a defendant were added to a lawsuit filed by dozens of Alaska Natives who say they were abused as children and teens by Jesuits or those supervised by Jesuits.

Seattle Times | Feb 5, 2009

By Janet I. Tu

Twenty more plaintiffs and a defendant have been added to a lawsuit filed by dozens of Alaska Natives who say they were abused as children and teens by Jesuits or those supervised by Jesuits.

In the original suit, filed last month, 43 Alaska Natives said they had been abused in remote villages in the state. The suit named several defendants, including various Jesuit entities and the head of the worldwide Roman Catholic order.

The suit also named Seattle University President Stephen Sundborg, saying that as a former provincial — or head — of the Jesuits in the Northwest, he knew or should have known about an abusive priest. Sundborg denied those allegations.

The amended lawsuit, filed Wednesday in Alaska Superior Court’s Bethel Judicial District, adds as a defendant the Rev. Francis Case, who served as provincial from about 1986 to 1990. The suit claims Case would have had access to the personnel files of all priests, including so-called hell files containing damning information about certain priests.

As such, the suit claims, Case knew or should have known about the Rev. Francis Nawn, who is accused in the lawsuit of abusing three of the plaintiffs during the years Case was provincial. Nawn is deceased, according to plaintiffs’ lawyers.

The lawsuit describes Case as Seattle University’s head of campus ministry, and the school’s Web site lists him in the faculty and staff directory as being involved in campus ministry.

But university officials said Case, who had been on assignment in Rome for 18 years, moved to Seattle in 2008 while on a sabbatical and is not employed at Seattle U and has no formal role or duties with campus ministry. Seattle University spokesman Casey Corr said the information on the Web site is not correct.

Case could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

Though Seattle University is not named in the suit, plaintiffs’ attorney Ken Roosa said “there’s no doubt that we are going after Seattle University assets,” contending the Jesuits own the school’s assets, even though the school is a separate corporate entity.

“Seattle University had no role in the events alleged to have occurred in Alaska,” Mary Petersen, Seattle University vice president and general counsel, said in a statement.

“The University is not owned, operated or governed by the Oregon Province,” the formal name of the Jesuits in the Northwest.

“The entire Seattle University community is committed to compassion and healing for all victims of clerical sexual abuse,” Petersen said.

The Very Rev. Patrick Lee, provincial of the Oregon Province, said it would be inappropriate to comment on Wednesday’s suit since the province has not reviewed it.

“The province remains committed to justice and healing in all cases of misconduct and child abuse,” Lee said.

The Oregon Province agreed last year to pay $50 million to settle an earlier suit filed by 110 Alaska Natives abused in remote villages.

Lawsuit claims Seattle U. president knew of Jesuit priest’s abuse

At a press conference, Elsie Boudreau, a victim of past sexual abuse by Jesuits, holds a photograph of a friend from 1941 who was also a victim. Boudreau was one of the victims on hand Wednesday for a press conference held by plaintiffs and their lawyers at Seattle University. COURTNEY BLETHEN / THE SEATTLE TIMES

Lawsuit claims, but Seattle U. president denies, that he knew of priest’s abuse

Seattle Times | Jan 14, 2008

By Janet I. Tu and Nick Perry

A lawsuit filed Tuesday accuses Seattle University president the Rev. Stephen Sundborg of knowing about an abusive Jesuit priest yet allowing that priest to remain in ministry, back when Sundborg served as head of the Jesuit order in the Northwest from about 1990 to 1996. Sundborg is one of several defendants named in the lawsuit, filed by 40 men and women who say they were sexually abused as children in Alaska years ago by Jesuits or those supervised by Jesuits.

Sundborg is one of several defendants named in the lawsuit, filed by more than 40 men and women who say they were sexually abused as children or teens in Alaska years ago by Jesuits or those supervised by Jesuits.

The suit claims that as provincial, Sundborg had access to something called “hell files” — files containing information about Jesuit priests that was “not public,” and “not good.”

As such, Sundborg should have known that the Rev. Henry Hargreaves, one of the accused priests, had abused children, the suit says. Hargreaves could not be reached Tuesday evening. According to the lawsuit, he resides with the Jesuit community in Spokane.

Sundborg issued a statement Wednesday saying: “The allegations brought against me are false. I firmly deny them. I want the victims and the entire community to know that.

“The complaint filed by the plaintiffs’ lawyers represents an unprincipled and irresponsible attack on my reputation,” Sundborg said. “Let me be clear — my commitment to justice and reconciliation for all victims remains steadfast. The sexual abuse by Catholic priests is one of the most shameful episodes in the history of our church. I will continue to work toward the goal of bringing healing to all victims.”

Tuesday’s lawsuit says Native villages in Alaska were essentially a “dumping ground” for Jesuit priests unsuited to serve anywhere else. That characterization has repeatedly been denied by the Jesuits. However they also have paid out millions of dollars in recent years to settle sexual-abuse claims in Alaska.

Several of the plaintiffs and their attorneys plan to hold a news conference this morning near Seattle University.

The lawsuit, filed in Alaska Superior Court’s Bethel Judicial District, accuses six Jesuits or those supervised by Jesuits, of sexual abuses ranging from fondling to rape. The abuses allegedly took place from around the 1950s into the early 1990s in remote Alaskan villages.

All the plaintiffs are Alaska Natives.

Other defendants in the suit include the international Jesuit order, and the Society of Jesus, Oregon Province — the formal name of the Jesuits in the Northwest. The province covers Washington, Oregon, Alaska, Montana and Idaho.

The Very Rev. Patrick Lee, head of the Oregon Province, said in a statement that it wouldn’t be appropriate to comment on the lawsuit since he hadn’t reviewed the allegations yet.

“The Oregon Province takes these allegations seriously and will investigate them to the fullest extent,” Lee said. “The province is committed to a just and healing course in all cases of misconduct and child abuse.”

In recent years, the Oregon Province has received numerous allegations of past sexual abuse, most of them involving Jesuits in Alaska. In November 2007, the province agreed to pay $50 million to 110 Alaska Natives — believed to be the largest settlement by a religious order in the Catholic Church abuse cases.

The Fairbanks Diocese, which owned and managed the churches in the villages where Jesuit priests, brothers and volunteers were assigned, filed for bankruptcy protection last March. About 300 people — including those who filed earlier lawsuits — have filed abuse claims with the diocese.

In Washington state, the Oregon Province agreed in January 2008 to pay $4.8 million to 16 Native Americans who were abused years ago when they were students at a boarding school near Omak.

Settlements in the state have also involved the Rev. John Leary, former president of Gonzaga University, and the Revs. Michael Toulouse and Englebert Axer, both former Seattle U. professors.

In 2006, the Rev. Tony Harris, the second-highest ranking Jesuit at Seattle U. after Sundborg, resigned when allegations that he’d sexually harassed a trainee priest in the 1990s publicly resurfaced. The Jesuits had earlier settled a lawsuit involving Harris and two other priests for an undisclosed amount.

Sundborg, who has led Seattle U. for more than a decade, faced criticism in 2005 for refusing to testify at a deposition in a case involving the Rev. James Poole, a Tacoma priest accused of raping or molesting several girls. Sundborg said that any meetings he’d had with Poole fell under a protective veil known to Jesuits as “manifestations of conscience.”

Sundborg said at the time that if Poole had disclosed any criminal conduct, he would have tried to make it public. The Jesuits paid about $1.6 million to settle two cases involving Poole and apologized for his actions.

Jesuits accused of dumping abusive priests off in Alaska

Associated Press| Jan 14, 2009

SEATTLE (AP) – People who say they were sexually abused by Catholic priests in Alaska villages called a news conference today outside Seattle University.

They are announcing 43 lawsuits against the Jesuit Order and accusing university President Stephen Sundborg of concealing abusers.

The group say there was a Jesuit conspiracy to dump predator priests in Alaska Villages where Native children were less likely to report to police.

A spokesman for the university, Casey Corr, told The Seattle Times Sundborg has not been served with a lawsuit. Corr says Sundborg believes all victims of clerical abuse should be treated with compassion and justice.

The 43 lawsuits were filed in Bethel, Alaska, alleging abused between the 1950s and 1990s in Nulato, Hooper Bay, Stebbins, Chevak, Mountain Village, Nunam Iqua and St. Michael.

Claims of abuse by priests in Fairbanks double

Allegations now total 292 against the diocese.

Associated Press | Jan 8, 2009

FAIRBANKS — Since The Fairbanks Catholic Diocese filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last year, the number of people alleging sexual abuse by diocesan priests and church workers has more than doubled.

The diocese filed for bankruptcy last March. Since then another 152 people have come forward and filed allegations with the court. That brings the latest tally to 292 people claiming they were sexually abused by Catholic clergy from the 1950s to 1980s, officials said.

The court imposed a deadline of last Dec. 2 to file further abuse claims.

An attorney for many of the people alleging sexual abuse said some of the new allegations involve offenders who hadn’t been named before.

Anchorage attorney Ken Roosa also said that although the Fairbanks diocese is now legally protected from further claims, victims can and are still levying legal claims against the Society of Jesus — the Jesuits — which provides priests for the Northern Alaska mission diocese.

Ronnie Rosenberg, the diocese’s legal coordinator, said the Fairbanks diocese is still working on liquidating assets, selling things and getting appraisals to meet bankruptcy requirements. In Chapter 11 cases, an organization keeps running while coming up with a plan for repaying those to whom it owes money.

“These are complex cases with a lot of people trying to garner assets and figure out a plan,” Rosenberg said.

“We’re trying to figure out how this can happen so the diocese can continue to operate and the plaintiffs can get compensated. It’s in everyone’s interest to have that happen,” he said.

Previous to filing for bankruptcy protection last winter, the Fairbanks diocese had settled with 23 victims.

The allegations against the diocese claim sexual misconduct by priests or church volunteers that stretches back decades, from the early 1980s to the 1950s.

“We acknowledge that harm was done to people and this is, we think, the most pastoral way to address those hurts,” a diocese official said in February about the bankruptcy filing.

In late 2007, the Jesuits and 113 victims of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy reached a $50 million agreement to settle claims.

The Anchorage diocese, among many others nationally, has had its own sexual-abuse scandals.

This decade the Anchorage diocese has paid out more than $1.5 million, including payment from insurance policies, to address sexual abuse claims. The diocese has sold commercial property and the home of its archbishop to raise money for the settlements.

Allegations have included a former Anchorage priest and a former Kenai priest. The abuse in some cases occurred decades ago.

Popular Jesuit self-help author named in a third sexual abuse lawsuit

Former Loyola Jesuit was professor, author and counselor

The Phoenix | Dec 4, 2008

Priest accused of sexual abuse

By Steven Kent

As a Jesuit and a professor at Loyola University Chicago, the Rev. John Powell, S.J., built a reputation as a popular teacher and a best-selling religious author – and all of it was called into question again last month as he faced his third sexual abuse lawsuit since 2003.

The civil lawsuit, filed Nov. 6 by the plaintiff “Jane Doe 125,” who has chosen to remain anonymous to the public, claimed that Powell held “private counseling sessions” with her during a religious retreat in 1967. During these sessions, said the official complaint, he forced her to kiss him and required her to remove her school u-niform so that he could fondle her.

The lawsuit also named the Chicago Province of the Society of Jesus, or the Jesuits, as a defendant on counts of negligence and fraud, and stated that the Jesuits knew about Powell’s pedophilic tendencies before the alleged incident and failed to act on that knowledge.

Powell, 83, now retired in Michigan, worked as a professor of theology at Loyola from 1965 until his retirement in 1996. During that time, he held spiritual retreats and wrote popular books such as Fully Human, Fully Alive, inspirational self-help manuals that blended pop psychology with Catholic theology and established him as “one of the best-selling spiritual authors of our time,” according to Publishers Weekly.

“This guy sells books about sexually intimate relationships, and the Jesuits make millions off of them, and it’s a fraud, a complete fraud,” said attorney Marc Pearlman, who represents the anonymous plaintiff for the law firm Kerns, Frost and Pearlman. “The guy was sexually abusing his students and people who came to him for counseling.”

He also, according to a number of accusers, used his position as a counselor and professor to abuse young girls. Throughout the years he was assigned to Loyola University, the lawsuit said, Powell held spiritual retreats that brought him into contact with minor children. It was during one of these retreats, held at Rosarian Academy in West Palm Beach, Fla., that he sexually abused the plaintiff, according to the lawsuit. She was “approximately 16 or 17,” the suit said.

The lawsuit also claimed that Powell “engaged in a pattern and practice of sexually abusing Loyola University students.” In 2006, a former Loyola University student, Diane Ruhl, named the Chicago order of Jesuits as the defendant in a civil lawsuit along with three other women. The lawsuit, which is still pending, claimed that Powell sexually abused Ruhl during private counseling sessions while she attended Loyola and also said that both Jesuit leaders and Loyola administrators received reports of Powell’s alleged abuses and ignored them.

Powell has never been charged with a crime.

Pearlman, the attorney, represented four women in a 2003 sexual abuse lawsuit against Powell, which the defendant settled publicly in 2005. He said that he has dealt with a number of women who have come forward and claimed that Powell abused them, enough to convince him that there may have been dozens more.

“I really doubt the number is just six or seven or 13,” he said. “We had a client, her sister went to Loyola and he was abusing her 13-year-old sister. He used to frequent the house, and he’d tell her parents he was going to tuck her in and bless her and read her confession, and then he’d abuse her. A 13 year-old.”

Powell could not be reached for comment. A statement from the Chicago Province of the Society of Jesus said he was in “extremely poor health, requiring 24-hour medical care and supervision.”

Pearlman also said that in his experience, the Jesuits displayed a record of covering up sex abuse within their ranks.

“The Jesuits have a history of being horrible on these types of issues,” he said. “They’ve had sex abusers in their ranks, they’ve known about them, they’ve covered it up, they’ve transferred them and ignored it, and Powell’s not the only example. I really think the way they approached this sex issue was to sweep it under the rug.”

Pearlman pointed to the case of the Rev. Donald McGuire, S.J., as an example. A public jury convicted McGuire in a 2006 criminal trial of sexually abusing two teenage boys in Chicago in the 1960s. Documents show that Chicago Jesuit leaders received alerts about McGuire’s behavior dozens of times during his career, according to multiple news sources.

Full Story

Related

Accused Priests Who Worked in the Archdiocese of Chicago

BishopAccountability.org has examined the public record to identify Chicago priests who have been accused of sexually abusing minors. Our list of 85 priests is considerably longer than the list of 55 priests that Cardinal George (photo at left) released recently. We also provide extensive information on many priests, including full assignment records and links to additional information. We will be supplementing that information in the coming weeks and searching for other accused Chicago priests.

Jesuit advisor to Mother Teresa found guilty of sexually abusing minors

McGuire, a former spiritual advisor to Mother Teresa, shown here with nuns from the Missionaries of Charity, was ordained in 1961 and was affiliated with the Chicago Province of the Society of Jesus ( the Jesuits ) until he was defrocked last February.

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Jesuits Were Warned about Abusive Priest
Former Catholic priest found guilty of sexually abusing minors

Media Newswire | Oct 27, 2008

(Media-Newswire.com) – CHICAGO – A defrocked Catholic priest was found guilty by a federal jury here Friday on two counts of sexually molesting a minor boy who lived periodically with him in Evanston, Ill., and accompanied him on interstate and international religious retreats. This guilty verdict resulted from an investigation conducted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement ( ICE ) and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois.

Donald J. McGuire, 78, from Chicago, was convicted of 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 last February.

During the three-week trial, 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. 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.

“Sexually exploiting children is despicable,” said Gary Hartwig, special agent-in-charge of the ICE Office of Investigations in Chicago. “ICE will go the extra mile to catch those individuals who prey on these innocent victims. Identifying and investigating those who victimize children – especially those who hold positions of public trust as in the case of Mr. McGuire – is one of the most important responsibilities ICE has.”

Under current federal law, the statute of limitations for sexual abuse of a minor extends during the life of the victim.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Julie B. Ruder and April M. Perry, Northern District of Illinois, successfully prosecuted this case.

McGuire faces a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine on each count. U.S. District Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer scheduled sentencing for Dec. 18.

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 11,500 child predators and sex offenders nationwide, including more than 600 in Illinois.

Congressman Mark Foley’s Maltese priest implicated in a third sex abuse case in Miami

Father Anthony Mercieca, shown in an undated photo, has apologized to Mark Foley and said he should “let bygones be bygones.”

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Just a Quiet Retiree Leading Mass in Malta

Fr Mercieca first came to the attention of the media in October 2006 when he acknowledged having inappropriate encounters with disgraced US Congressman Mark Foley.

Times of Malta | Oct 21, 2008

Gozo priest implicated in third sex abuse case in Miami

By Claudia Calleja

An elderly Gozitan priest who has been involved in two sex scandals in the US has now been implicated in a third case, this time involving a 15-year-old boy in Miami.

Court officials are expected to travel to Malta next spring to take his deposition.

Jeffrey Herman, the lawyer who is representing the alleged victim, filed a lawsuit in the Miami-Dade Circuit Court against the Archdiocese of Miami claiming it allowed Fr Anthony Mercieca, a retired priest of the Archdiocese, to sexually abuse the boy in 1977.

Fr Mercieca, who is in his 70s and resides in Gozo, was at the time stationed at St James church in north Miami.

“The law suit is against the Archdiocese and we allege that they were aware Fr Mercieca was abusing boys. Even though the case is against the Archdiocese, and Fr Mercieca is (now) in Malta, we intend to come to Malta to take his deposition in March or April,” Mr Herman told The Times when contacted at his Miami office.

“In this case, this man alleges that, when he was a boy, he went to St James church for confession and met Fr Mercieca. He is alleging that, in the confessional, Fr Mercieca started to touch him and began sexual abuse that went on for years,” Mr Herman added.

Fr Mercieca first came to the attention of the media in October 2006 when he acknowledged having inappropriate encounters with disgraced US Congressman Mark Foley. The priest admitted he had had encounters, which Mr Foley may have perceived as sexually inappropriate, 40 years ago.

After the Foley case made world headlines, the Archdiocese had asked any possible victims of inappropriate behaviour or abuse by the priest to come forward or contact a law enforcement agency. Within days, a second American made similar claims.

The man, also represented by Mr Herman, claimed that Fr Mercieca molested him in the church bell tower in north Miami after a bicycle ride together when he was 13 in the 1970s. This case has been settled out of court.

Reacting to this new suit, on Thursday the Archdiocese of Miami released a statement where it outlined that Fr Mercieca’s faculties were removed in October 2006 after he was accused by Mr Foley.

“A priest without faculties cannot perform or dress as a priest. The Archdiocese of Miami’s policies clearly outline how it deals with such allegations when Church clergy, employees or volunteers are accused of such crimes.

“All claims of sexual abuse are reported to the State Attorney’s office, an offer of pastoral and psychological counselling is made to the alleged victim and the Archdiocese’s Review Board conducts a review of the allegations while respecting any investigation by state authorities,” the Archdiocese said.