LANSING (MI)
Lansing State Journal
February 22, 2019
By Megan Banta
For decades, Greg Guggemos couldn’t remember the year he spent at St. Vincent Catholic Charities Children’s Home.
It wasn’t until memories came flooding back in 2009 that he realized that, when he and three siblings stayed there in 1954 in 1955, he had been sexually abused by Rev. John Slowey.
Guggemos, a former attorney who settled a decades-old sex abuse claim against the Diocese of Lansing for $225,000 in 2010, said Friday that it’s hard for him to believe Catholic Church officials when they pledge to keep priests accountable.
“How can you even, with a straight face, expect someone to believe that?” Guggemos said. “It’s like the fox loose in the hen house.”
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel is preparing for a long investigation into clergy abuse in Michigan. Nessel expects it could turn up more than 1,000 victims.
She said at a press conference Thursday that people should be wary of church-led investigations into clergy abuse, that they should look for a badge if someone asks to speak with them.
Guggemos said that’s exactly right.
‘They obviously haven’t done that in the past’
Guggemos says he has no respect for the Catholic Church.
He says when the repressed memories of his sexual abuse returned in 2009, the emotional and physical toil cause him to quit practicing law.
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