LANCASTER (MA)
Boston Globe
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April 16, 2012|By Michael Rezendes
LANCASTER – At least five former students at a small Catholic day school in Lancaster have said they were abused by the same priest during the 1990s and early 2000s, but the couple who founded and ran the Trivium School stoutly defended the Rev. Donald J. McGuire until 2009, when he was sentenced to 25 years in prison for molesting a former eighth-grader.
McGuire, once a prominent Jesuit with close ties to Mother Teresa, never worked at the Trivium but was a regular guest, saying Mass and speaking at graduations. Founders John S. and Louise Schmitt described him in a 2006 letter to a judge as “a man who has given spiritual direction and sound support to our family and to the families of students who have attended our school.’’
Now, Louise Schmitt says the school never took steps to find out whether McGuire molested others besides the five former students cited in court proceedings. The school also never notified alumni or their parents that McGuire was once a regular presence on campus.
“I maybe should have investigated but I didn’t,’’ she said during an interview at her home last month. Schmitt is also a former teacher and current board member at the school. She said she now realizes McGuire was guilty of sexual abuse.
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