Donald J. McGuire was a Jesuit priest whose decades of sexual abuse of boys and young men produced state and federal convictions, a 25-year federal prison sentence, and one of the largest civil settlements in the history of clergy abuse litigation. Ordained in 1961, he used his prominence as a retreat director, spiritual advisor, and public associate of Mother Teresa to gain access to children in devout Catholic families across the United States and abroad. He died in federal prison in 2017.
A Priest With National Reach
McGuire’s assignments placed him near young people for half a century. He taught at Loyola Academy, a Jesuit preparatory school in the Chicago area, from 1954 to 1957 and again from 1965 into the early 1970s. He taught at the University of San Francisco’s Saint Ignatius Institute from 1976 to 1981, then based himself at the Bellarmine Jesuit Retreat House in Barrington, Illinois, through much of the 1980s. From 1988 onward he operated out of Jesuit residences in Evanston and Chicago while traveling constantly for retreats and spiritual direction.1Illinois Attorney General. Donald J. McGuire
Supporters called him “mesmerizing” as a preacher.2OregonLive. From Priest’s Biggest Defender to Discovery of Heartbreaking Truth He served as spiritual director for the Carmelite Sisters, gave retreats to Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity, and served as chaplain to the National Federation of Catholic Physicians in the 1990s.3BishopAccountability.org. Rev. Donald J. McGuire, S.J. Assignment Record In 1994, Catholic laypeople founded Mission FIDES as the institutional vehicle for his retreat ministry; the nonprofit sponsored roughly 25 retreats a year on six continents, with McGuire as its primary retreat master.4BishopAccountability.org. Mission FIDES History
The Mother Teresa Association
McGuire routinely invoked Mother Teresa to build credibility. The Missionaries of Charity later stated the relationship was thin. Legal counsel for the order, H. James Towey, said McGuire was neither Mother Teresa’s spiritual director nor her regular confessor; like hundreds of priests he occasionally heard her confession and gave retreats to her sisters, and he misrepresented the depth of that connection to others.5Missionaries of Charity. Statement Regarding Former Priest Donald J. McGuire
A February 1994 letter attributed to Mother Teresa urged the Jesuit Provincial to restore McGuire’s “vital ministry.” The order later said she did not write it herself; she was 83, dependent on staff for correspondence, and her belief in his innocence rested on findings by the Jesuit Provincial and Rev. John Hardon, a Jesuit asked to investigate a 1993 California complaint. Hardon reported McGuire innocent and called his conduct “objectively defensible” but “highly imprudent,” even after McGuire admitted showering with the 16-year-old complainant and letting him possess pornography.6BishopAccountability.org. Tainted Saint The Missionaries of Charity said McGuire “used” his association with Mother Teresa “to groom the trust of others.”5Missionaries of Charity. Statement Regarding Former Priest Donald J. McGuire
How He Abused Victims
The Illinois Attorney General’s clergy report lists at least 10 reported survivors, with allegations from 1954 through 2005.1Illinois Attorney General. Donald J. McGuire Court filings documented abuse across at least 11 U.S. states and six foreign countries, among them Germany, Austria, England, and Ireland.3BishopAccountability.org. Rev. Donald J. McGuire, S.J. Assignment Record
The pattern was consistent. McGuire targeted boys from devout Catholic families, often of limited financial means, who attended or funded his retreats. He inserted himself into family life as a trusted spiritual figure, offered tutoring, financial help, and educational connections, then recruited boys as personal “valets” who traveled with him, carried his briefcase, and shared his sleeping quarters. The arrangement produced both physical access and a psychological dependency that made disclosure hard.2OregonLive. From Priest’s Biggest Defender to Discovery of Heartbreaking Truth
One victim, identified in court records as John Doe 116, alleged McGuire abused him hundreds of times between 1999 and 2003 across 11 states and six countries.3BishopAccountability.org. Rev. Donald J. McGuire, S.J. Assignment Record The earliest documented allegations came from the 1960s, when McGuire was teaching at Loyola Academy and abusing students during trips to a cottage in Fontana, Wisconsin.7Wisconsin Courts. State of Wisconsin v. McGuire, Case No. 2007AP2711-CR
What the Jesuits Knew, and When
Internal documents obtained through civil litigation show Jesuit leaders were warned about McGuire for nearly four decades. In November 1969, a parish priest told the president of Loyola Academy that a 14-year-old student had called McGuire a “pervert” and described abuse in his school residence.3BishopAccountability.org. Rev. Donald J. McGuire, S.J. Assignment Record In 1970, the Loyola Academy president wrote to a senior Jesuit that McGuire’s “presence here has become positively destructive and corrosive” and his removal was “absolutely essential.”8ABC7 San Francisco. Priest Sentenced for Child Molestation The order removed him from the school but transferred him elsewhere, placing him on what a vice provincial internally acknowledged was “not a sabbatical in the usual sense.”
After McGuire left the University of San Francisco in 1981, the California Jesuits wrote to his superiors that he would need “serious psychological evaluation and therapy.”8ABC7 San Francisco. Priest Sentenced for Child Molestation He was reassigned to Bellarmine, where he continued working with families and young people. After the 1993 California complaint and Hardon’s exculpatory report, he was returned to active ministry.
In October 2000, another family raised concerns that their son was sleeping in the same bed as McGuire. Jesuit officials first said they were “looking into it,” then told the family the investigation was “none of their business.”9NPR. Papers: Jesuits Were Warned About Abusive Priest In January 2001, a Jesuit official invoked McGuire’s “right to privacy” and asked concerned parents to “trust us to act appropriately.”3BishopAccountability.org. Rev. Donald J. McGuire, S.J. Assignment Record Only in October 2003 did the Provincial move to strip his faculties.
Attorney Marc Pearlman, who represented victims’ families, obtained 25 internal documents and accused the Jesuits of destroying records or lying about them; when a Wisconsin district attorney requested records, the order reportedly said it “had nothing.”9NPR. Papers: Jesuits Were Warned About Abusive Priest Edward Schmidt, the Chicago provincial from 2003, later said the order “missed red flags” and that “there are lots of things we should have done differently.”10WUSF. Papers: Jesuits Were Warned About Abusive Priest
The Wisconsin Conviction
McGuire was arrested in February 2005. Prosecutors brought the case in Wisconsin because Illinois’s statute of limitations had expired.9NPR. Papers: Jesuits Were Warned About Abusive Priest The victims, Victor Bender and a former student identified as Sean C., had been students at Loyola Academy; the abuse occurred at the Fontana cottage in 1967 and 1968.7Wisconsin Courts. State of Wisconsin v. McGuire, Case No. 2007AP2711-CR
In February 2006, a jury convicted McGuire on all five counts of taking indecent liberties with the two children. He received concurrent seven-year prison terms on two counts and 20 years of probation on three others.7Wisconsin Courts. State of Wisconsin v. McGuire, Case No. 2007AP2711-CR The Wisconsin Court of Appeals affirmed in May 2009, and the Wisconsin Supreme Court upheld the conviction 7-0 on July 20, 2010.11NBC Chicago. Wisconsin Supreme Court Upholds McGuire Conviction
The Federal Conviction and 25-Year Sentence
Federal prosecutors in Chicago pursued more recent conduct. McGuire was indicted in November 2007 as part of Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s “Operation Predator.” The two counts charged travel in interstate and foreign commerce for the purpose of engaging in sexual activity with a minor under 18 U.S.C. ยง 2423(b): a December 2000 trip to Austria and Switzerland with a 14-year-old boy, and an August 2001 trip to Buffalo, Minnesota, with the same victim.12Marquette Wire. Priest Sentenced for Child Molestation Charges
After a two-and-a-half-week trial before U.S. District Judge Rebecca R. Pallmeyer, a federal jury convicted McGuire on October 24, 2008.13ABC7 New York. Former Jesuit Priest Convicted of Child Molestation He was sentenced to 25 years in federal prison. On appeal, he argued the travel was for religious retreats and any abuse was incidental, and that other-victim testimony should have been excluded. The Seventh Circuit rejected both arguments in an opinion by Judge Richard Posner on December 2, 2010.14Justia. United States v. McGuire, No. 09-1597 McGuire did not challenge the length of his sentence.15vLex. United States v. McGuire, 627 F.3d 622
Dismissal From the Priesthood
The Jesuit order dismissed McGuire in 2007. Because he did not voluntarily leave the priesthood, laicization required a Vatican order. His permanent removal from all clerical functions was announced in February 2008 by Rev. Edward Schmidt, head of the Chicago Province of the Society of Jesus.16Chicago Tribune. Priest Convicted of Abuse Is Defrocked
The $19.6 Million Settlement and Later Lawsuits
Victims sued the Chicago Province of the Society of Jesus, alleging negligence, fraud, and intentional infliction of emotional distress for failing to report McGuire’s known history and letting him continue in ministry to avoid scandal.17Illinois Courts. Empire Indemnity Insurance Co. v. Chicago Province of the Society of Jesus In January 2013, the Chicago Province reached a $19.6 million settlement with six victims, publicly announced on May 20, 2013. Attorney Jeff Anderson said the amount reflected the “magnitude of misconduct” by McGuire’s superiors. Fr. Timothy Kesicki of the Jesuits said the order had “made mistakes by thinking that restrictive measures we undertook with regard to Donald McGuire would be effective.”18NBC Chicago. Nearly $20M Settlement Reached in Abuse Lawsuit Against Former Jesuit Priest
A separate civil suit was filed on December 30, 2019, in California state court by Robert J. Goldberg, who alleged McGuire had abused him more than 1,000 times beginning at age 11 and continuing into adulthood while he worked as McGuire’s valet across multiple states and countries. Goldberg’s lawyers said they would name the U.S. branch of the Jesuit order and its top Vatican leader as defendants. The suit was filed under a California law that temporarily lifted the statute of limitations for childhood sexual abuse claims.19PBS NewsHour. Lawsuit Says Famous Jesuit Abused Boy 1,000 Times Around the World
Death in Prison
McGuire died in federal prison in 2017 while serving his 25-year sentence.20Philadelphia Inquirer. Jesuit Priest Donald McGuire Sexual Assault Lawsuit He was 87. His file remains one of the most extensively documented records of how institutional loyalty, deference to a priest’s reputation, and repeated failures of oversight allowed clergy abuse to continue across decades and continents.