An accused pedophile priest who was a prominent Jesuit has been accused of molesting a boy more than 1,000 times as they traveled the world. In a lawsuit filed against the U.S. Jesuits and the head of the order in Rome, 61-year-old Robert G. claims that sexual abuse by the late Rev. Donald McGuire began when Robert was 11 years old, The San Diego Union-Tribune reports.

McGuire died in 2017 while serving a 25-year sentence in a federal prison for sexually assaulting other boys.

Plaintiff: Priest Manipulated Boy, Family

Robert says he accompanied McGuire as his valet during the priest’s world travels. McGuire exerted such powerful emotional and psychological control, Robert says, that the abuse continued into adulthood. Even after 40 years, Robert reports that he was willing to defend his abuser – going so far as to offering to testify in McGuire’s defense when he was on trial for the charges that eventually sent him to prison.

In 1970, McGuire allegedly convinced Robert’s mother that Robert would benefit from his supervision and guidance. Eventually, McGuire began paying Robert up to $500 a week to be his assistant. Robert says that as his family became reliant on young Robert’s paychecks, McGuire began his seduction of the boy, spending evenings alone with him in his private quarters and sleeping in the same bed.

In an interview with the Associated Press, Robert said McGuire “was very controlling. I had no say whatsoever. Whatever he told my mother he wanted me to do, I had to do it.”

In 1976, Robert’s family followed McGuire to San Francisco when he took a teaching post at the Jesuit university in that city. During this time, McGuire reportedly rose to prominence, becoming a spiritual adviser to the late Mother Theresa’s order, the Missionaries of Charity.

History of a Pedophile Priest

McGuire’s career as a clergyman reportedly began in 1954, when he was assigned as a scholastic at Loyola Academy in Chicago. Shortly after his ordination in 1961, he traveled to Europe to study. In Innsbruck, Austria a year or so later, the first allegations of sexually abusing a minor surfaced. During McGuire’s time in Austria and Germany, church officials in those countries sent a number of disturbing reports about his conduct with young boys.

McGuire returned to teach at Loyola in 1965, where he remained until 1970, when he first encountered young Robert. During his tenure at Loyola, McGuire was accused of abusing at least three boys. In 1969, the Rev. Charles Schlax, an Archdiocese priest, wrote a report about a phone conversation he had with Loyola Academy president, the Rev. John Reinke, in which he says that one of McGuire’s victims referred to him as a “pervert.”

McGuire was dismissed the following spring for “family issues” – a term used by the church to describe sexual misconduct. In a letter written at the time, Reinke described McGuire’s presence as “positively destructive and corrosive.” Rather than turn McGuire over to secular law enforcement, however, Reinke recommended he be transferred to Loyola University – and the allegations of the sexual assault were swept under the rug, according to the Chicago Tribune.

The Coverup Continued

McGuire’s behavior as a pedophile priest reportedly continued for the next 37 years, during which he allegedly abused at least 10 boys — and the Jesuits took no action other than to reportedly cover for him, a common issue in the still-unfolding Roman Catholic Church sexual abuse scandal.

McGuire’s history finally caught up with him in 2006, when he was tried and convicted for molesting two teenagers in Wisconsin.

This article is not legal advice. It is presented
for informational purposes only.