JoltinJoe wrote:Nice distortion, there. Mother Teresa had been told that the priest "admitted his imprudence" but had been proven innocent. Funny how the article left that out, making it sound that the priest's admission of his "imprudence" was admission of his guilt.
This letter is more problematic for Fr. Hardon, who told Mother Teresa about the accusations, but told her that Fr. McGuire had been proven innocent.
Nice excuse, Pedophile Protector.
Yet documents obtained by SF Weekly suggest that Mother Teresa knew one of her favorite priests was removed from ministry for sexually abusing a Bay Area boy in 1993, and that she nevertheless urged his bosses to return him to work as soon as possible. The priest resumed active ministry, as well as his predatory habits. Eight additional complaints were lodged against him in the coming years by various families, leading to his eventual arrest on sex-abuse charges in 2005.
The priest was Donald McGuire, a former Jesuit who has been convicted of molesting boys in federal and state courts and is serving a 25-year federal prison sentence. McGuire, now 81 years old, taught at the University of San Francisco in the late 1970s, and held frequent spiritual retreats for families in San Francisco and Walnut Creek throughout the 1980s and 1990s. He also ministered extensively to the Missionaries of Charity during that time.
The Catholic response (excuse and smokescreen) - Just deny it and hope people eventually forget:
We've been getting quite a range of reaction to yesterday's cover story on Mother Teresa's links to convicted pedophile priest Donald McGuire. Documents obtained by SF Weekly indicate that the "Saint of Calcutta" might have urged Jesuit officials to overlook a sex-abuse allegation against McGuire by a Walnut Creek boy in 1993.
We asked multiple church officials for comment prior to publication. The Missionaries of Charity (MT's order of nuns), the Jesuits, the Vatican-deputized investigator of MT's sainthood case, and the Archdiocese of San Francisco all declined to talk or did not respond to our calls and e-mails. But now the San Francisco Archdiocese has commented on the story for Univision Channel 14, which ran a story based on our reporting.
According to Univision:
La arquidiócesis de San Francisco expresó su tristeza ante las acusaciones del Weekly y destacó en un comunicado que ni siquiera el propio autor del reporte estaba seguro de que las cartas fueron escritas por la Madre Teresa.
"Estoy seguro que en su bondad la Madre Teresa perdona este vergonzoso ataque, pero es un día sombrío para el periodismo", añadió.
Bilingual SF Weekly Staff Writer Lauren Smiley translates:
The Archdiocese of San Francisco expressed its sadness about the Weekly's accusations and highlighted in the press release that even the story's author wasn't sure if the letters were written by Mother Teresa.
"I am sure that Mother Teresa, in all her goodness, would forgive this shameful attack, but it is a dark day for journalism."
We called the archdiocese for further comment, particularly on the strong indications that the letter -- which you can read here -- was written by Mother Teresa, though it is unsigned. We'll let you know if we hear back.
Same old catholic pedophile story...
The scandal continues and widens. We're still only seeing the tip of the iceberg.

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