UNITED STATES
BishopAccountability.org
Summary of Case: Rev. Chester “Chet” Gaiter professed vows as a Jesuit brother of the Missouri Province in 1962. He worked as an infirmarian for Jesuit communities in Kansas City and St. Louis before attending divinity school. Gaiter was ordained a priest of the Society of Jesus in 1976. During his priesthood he pastored several parishes. He served also as a campus minister and religion teacher at Cardinal Ritter High School in St. Louis. Gaiter retired in the mid-1990s, reportedly due to problems with memory loss, which led to a diagnosis of early Alzheimer’s disease. In the 2000s two men – who came forward separately – accused Gaiter of having sexually abused them while they were Cardinal Ritter students in the 1980s. One of the men accused three other priests as well, two of whom taught at Cardinal Ritter High, and one of whom the man said began to molest him when he was a third grader in a St. Louis parochial school. This accuser said the priests plied him with alcohol and drugs. Gaiter died in 2010.
Ordained: 1976
Died: Aug. 14, 2010
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