[See also other articles by Gustavo Arellano.]

Earlier this week, National Public Radio aired a segment on Donald McGuire , a Jesuit who served as a spiritual director for Mother Teresa's religious order who just happened to molest boys. You know the rest of the story: ravaged kids, parental complaints ignored by diocesan and Jesuit officials, more rapes, lawsuits. But what hasn't been noted is that McGuire was a familiar face in Orange County for decades.


The pedophile, described in a 1991 Orange County Register article as "feisty, blunt and armed with some caustic home truths," held many retreats at Marywood (the Orange diocese's headquarters) and St. Jean de Lestonnac Elementary School in Tustin during the 1980s and 1990s. His speciality: the Spiritual Exercises , silent get-togethers where Jesuits reaffirmed the faith. At these retreats, according to an Orange County resident who attended them for years but requested anonymity, McGuire would boast about how his methods changed the lives of wayward men. "I have sons all over the world," McGuire would state. There has never been a molestation lawsuit filed against McGuire in Orange County Superior Court--at least none ever disclosed.

E-mail: GARELLANO@OCWEEKLY.COM