CHICAGO (AP) – A retired Jesuit priest convicted of molesting two boys was taken into custody Friday on a charge that he molested a boy he took on a trip to Switzerland and Austria seven years ago, prosecutors announced.
The Rev. Donald J. McGuire, 77, has been free on bond while appealing his conviction last year in Wisconsin that he molested two high school students in the 1960s.
McGuire was taken into custody Thursday by Wisconsin authorities who said that he failed to keep his sex offender registry updated. He was turned over to Immigration and Customs agents Friday on the new charge of traveling overseas to engage in sex with a minor.
McGuire specialized in organizing religious retreats, including retreats for Mother Teresa’s religious communities in India, according to a federal affidavit.
The 24-page affidavit said the Jesuit order as early as 1991 placed restrictions on his contacts with minor boys and young men, but McGuire continued to travel alone with teen boys, including one who was 13 years old when the alleged abuse began in 1999. McGuire then traveled with the boy to Switzerland and Austria in 2000.
His abuse of the boy ended in 2003 when the Jesuits ordered McGuire to move out of a religious house in Evanston in 2003, the affidavit said.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Arlander Keys ordered McGuire held in federal custody after Assistant U.S. Attorney Julie B. Ruder told him that McGuire was both a flight risk and danger to the community. Keys set a bond hearing for Tuesday.
Bond should have been immediate, said defense attorney Stephen Komie.
“A 77-year-old man isn’t going anywhere, he’s not running, he’s not hiding,” Komie told reporters after the brief hearing before Keys.
Komie also took aim at the potential witnesses against McGuire – alleged victims whose names were not used in the government’s complaint.
“Are any of them known to be liars? Who are they?” he said. A chance to sue the church and collect money may have motivated those who claim McGuire molested them, Komie said.
The federal charge carries a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison.
By MIKE ROBINSON