UNITED STATES/UNITED KINGDOM
What They Knew
Newly uncovered documents reveal twice convicted and imprisoned Chicago Jesuit Donald McGuire SJ began his ministry not in America, but in the United Kingdom in the early 1960s as an associate pastor in Manchester, England. His departure from that post remains unexplained. But given McGuire’s history, superior performance was not likely the factor which lead to his leaving this pastoral position in less than a year. As we have previously uncovered, documents written by his superiors from 1959 have labeled McGuire ‘unfit’ for the priesthood. This fact may in part explain his superiors’ decision to send him outside the US and to the UK, Austria and Germany in 1961 after his ordination.
During this same period, Donald McGuire SJ also travelled frequently to Ireland, giving over six retreats to nuns and laity. Following his departure from Manchester, the Jesuit priest fled the UK and reappeared in Austria and Germany one year later as a part-time military chaplain to British and US soldiers. McGuire being a chaplain to the Anglo-American soldiers is not entirely surprising. As shown HERE, there is a lengthy list of “problem” priests relegated to military service.
What is surprising is the letter below to his Provincial at the Chicago Province of the Society of Jesus. The document shows the convicted Jesuit child sex abuser worked as the chaplain to a British boys boarding school in Hamm, Germany in 1962. McGuire conducted retreats for children as young as 7-8 years old, boys 14-17 years old, soldiers serving abroad and engaged in hospital work.
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