The Churches

Priests: McGuire sentencing, Mayer sued

The sentencing of Rev. Donald McGuire, SJ, convicted in February of sexual molestation of two Loyola Academy-Wilmette boys in the 60s, has been delayed to about June 26, according to Walworth County, Wisconsin, court records. 

In an unrelated case, ex-Rev. Robert Mayer, once assigned to St. Catherine of Siena parish in Oak Park and having served several years at Stateville for sexual molestation, is being sued civilly along with the archdiocese of Chicago by four men for molesting them as boys “at three parishes: St. Barnabas in Chicago, St. Mary in Lake Forest and St. Edna in Arlington Heights,” says Chi Trib.

The archdiocese ignored repeated warnings that the Rev. Robert Mayer was abusing children, moving him between parishes where he molested children for years, says the suit, per Sun-Times.

Mayer forced him and other altar boys at St. Mary parish in Lake Forest to "engage in deviant sexual behavior -- everything from oral sex to anal sex,”

says one of the four in the suit.  Another said:

Mayer created a "subculture of privileged altar boys," giving them alcohol and pornography. Mayer masturbated in front of groups of boys and molested them individually, Mazurek said.

He also took groups of boys to his house at Fox Lake, where he once tried to take off another boy's bathing suit, Mazurek said. When a civil lawsuit was filed over the incident, Mayer convinced Mazurek to lie at his deposition and in an affidavit, Mazurek said.

"The best way to describe Mayer is like a cult leader," he said.

posted by Jim Bowman @ 6/14/2006 05:58:00 PM