Tainted Saint: Mother Teresa Defended Pedophile Priest (SF Weekly)

[RandySF]

Yet documents obtained by SF Weekly suggest that Mother Teresa knew one of her favorite priests was removed from ministry for sexually abusing a Bay Area boy in 1993, and that she nevertheless urged his bosses to return him to work as soon as possible. The priest resumed active ministry, as well as his predatory habits. Eight additional complaints were lodged against him in the coming years by various families, leading to his eventual arrest on sex-abuse charges in 2005.

The priest was Donald McGuire, a former Jesuit who has been convicted of molesting boys in federal and state courts and is serving a 25-year federal prison sentence. McGuire, now 81 years old, taught at the University of San Francisco in the late 1970s, and held frequent spiritual retreats for families in San Francisco and Walnut Creek throughout the 1980s and 1990s. He also ministered extensively to the Missionaries of Charity during that time.

In a 1994 letter to McGuire's Jesuit superior in Chicago, it appears that Mother Teresa acknowledged she had learned of the "sad events which took [McGuire] from his priestly ministry these past seven months," and that McGuire "admitted imprudence in his behavior," but she wished to see him put back on the job. The letter was written after McGuire had been sent to a psychiatric hospital following an abuse complaint to the Jesuits by a family in Walnut Creek.

"I understand how grave is the scandal touching the priesthood in the U.S.A. and how careful we must be to guard the purity and reputation of that priesthood," the letter states. "I must say, however, that I have confidence and trust in Fr. McGuire and wish to see his vital ministry resume as soon as possible."


http://www.sfweekly.com/2012-01-11/news/mother-teresa-catholic-church-john-hardon-donald-mcguire-child-abuse-jesuits/

[Gman]

1. He violated her trust

and the trust of others. There is no taint.

[Humanist_Activist]

2. She always seemed the type more interested in doing what looks good...

rather than actually doing good, just putting up a front, with nothing backing it up. I view her support of a pedophile in the same light, and seems consistent with her "suffering leads to salvation" theology, which was just evil.

[Gman]

4. That's a pathetic comment

[roguevalley]

3. if she knew and her words though flowery suggest she did, she is tainted and worse. She said protect

the priesthood. Shame on her. But then, she did a lot of things that sucked. Humans do that

[cthulu2016]

5. "imprudence" n/t

[DevonRex]

6. OMG.

My first reaction is horror followed by anger.

Then I hope that she was so innocent, so sheltered in sexual matters that she really had no idea what actually occurred. And then i wonder if she had been told the details.

Now I'm back to horror and anger because she says she understands how grave the scandal is. WTF????

[Warren DeMontague]

7. Mother Theresa was an anti-birth control extremist & a hypocrite

she was no 'saint'.

[joeybee12]

8. Two things...first it could show how naive she is...

And that was part of the problem, people like her think such behavior can be cured through prayer.

Second, she always was big into PR...when she died, the streets of Calcutta were NOT lined with grieving people, most there didn't know who she was...but people in the US sure did.

[mrs_p]

10. Really?

That wasn't my experience in 1993-1995. Everywhere I went in India, they knew who Mother Teresa was, especially in Calcutta. I was working in several of her hospices at the time and when I ventured out into public and someone asked me what I was doing, they knew who she was instantly. The sisters are all over the city as well.

This really surprises me...

[mrs_p]

9. I was in her order when this happened.

I remember it quite vividly. It made me very sick and sad. Other sisters said that we needed to forgive the priests, that they have been given grace by god and it's not our place (as wee no-nothin nuns) to pass judgement. I couldn't accept it - knew too many priests who were neither holy nor graced - and left soon after.

I still have mixed feeling about Mother. I knew her to be very gentle and kind to everyone I ever saw her interact with (except the sisters in the order - but that is another story). But, she was so blinded by faith. To the point where (I feel) she cared more about the religion than about people. Or maybe, I should say, she cared more about making people see that their suffering is a connection to Jesus' suffering, so that they would embrace it instead of fight it. That's why she didn't care about changing any policies or challenging injustices.

And, to that end, I feel that she was a hypocrite. One of the MC vows is "free and whole-hearted service to the poorest of the poor." There is no service to the poor when you dismiss their suffering or pretend it is all just part of god's plan to bring us closer to Christ. I disagreed with Christopher Hitchens on many things, but I think he was correct when he said she "was not a friend of the poor. She was a friend of poverty.” I saw it time and time again. To her, poverty was a connection with god and that there was nothing to battle on this earth. She loved poverty. She absolutely did.

[DisgustipatedinCA]

13. it's really interesting to get your first-hand perspective.

I've always liked Hitchens' writing, and I knew he was very anti-Mother Theresa, but I never read his writing on the subject. I'm going to make a point of doing that one day soon to see where he was coming from.

Thanks again for posting your experience.

[treestar]

11. There's the forgiveness end of it

We tend to think of Christianity as unforgiving because of the fundamentalist Americans who practice it.

God forgives all our sins, etc., so that could come into play.

[mrs_p]

12. PS - Holy Shit!

Just saw the picture in the article. This pedophile came and stayed at our MC convent in NJ and it must have been around the time the allegations were coming to light. I had to clean up his room and he gave us nuns lectures. The one that particularly stands out is the reason I finally decided to leave! It was on how there could NOT be life on other planets because god created only MAN in his image. Me, as a daughter of Trekkies, said that was the last straw and left a few weeks later. WOWSERS!

[RandySF]

15. Sf Weekly is looking for people to further confirm their findings.

Care to talk to them?

[mrs_p]

16. Ohh - that's hard....

I've tried to move on - though, those experiences from nearly 20 years ago definitely have made me who I am today. When Mother died, I was living in Seattle, and some newspaper folks wanted a statement from me. I "accidently" forgot to call them back. Back then it was still all too fresh, I guess.

I can verify some things, though, if it would be helpful to the investigation. (I assume I need to come out behind the veil of anonymity.)

[redqueen]

14. She was tainted long before this.

Look into the history of and controversy about her charity in India.