Years of allowed abuse: Files highlight transfers, reinstatements of accused into ministry

The child sexual abuse scandal that has plagued the Catholic Church for decades is not a new story. But a report released last week may offer new insight for many into how these men and women were transferred, hidden, protected and continued to serve in ministry after repeated allegations were made to church officials.

The report, released March 20 by Bannockburn-based Jeff Anderson & Associates (which also has offices in Minnesota) names 395 accused clergy and Catholic officials across Illinois. But also, and perhaps more importantly, it follows the timeline of their careers from ordination to present, illustrating the depth of concealment from parish members and the public, which in many cases allowed for further abuse.

Of the 395 named in the Illinois report, 19 priests served at some point in churches and schools in local communities of Berwyn, Cicero, Stickney, La Grange, Lyons, Brookfield, and North Riverside. More than 33 served in DuPage County. Anderson & Associates obtained, through litigation, the personal files on accused members of clergy. Letters, paperwork, memos and other records create a detailed history. Those files are available for public view on the firm’s website.

We share compilations of several of those histories here:

Fr. Robert E. Mayer, Ordained, 1964

This is a synopsis of information that was complied by Anderson & Associates from Diocese files the firm obtained through litigation.

By the time Robert Mayer was convicted of felony child sex abuse in 1992, the Archdiocese had a record of problems with the priest that was a decade or more long, including complaints from nuns, parents and parishioners that Mayer was sexually abusing children.

Letters, memos and witnesses said that Mayer was giving children alcohol, taking pictures of the kids “passed out,” and openly talking with children about sex and masturbation. There were allegations of nude swimming, touching minors and group masturbation.

Fr. Robert E. Mayer first was accused of sexual abuse in 1982 when a mother filed a lawsuit alleging Mayer had exposed himself to and attempted to undress and molest her 13-year-old son and at least one other altar boy from St. Edna’s in Arlington Heights on an outing to Fox Lake, Illinois. The lawsuit was settled in 1985.

In a 2007 deposition, Bishop Raymond Goedert testified that he personally was contacted by a parent in 1986, who said that Mayer had abused boys at St. Edna’s.

Instead of removing Mayer and calling the police when the first allegations were known, the Archdiocese told Mayer to resign from his parish “for other reasons” and was assigned elsewhere.

But indications of knowledge of alleged acts prior to 1986 fill the file on Mayer.

In 1981, while Mayer was associate pastor at St. Edna, Sister Jane Schlosser received reports that Mayer was removing his clothes while socializing with the children. Sister Jane reported this in October 1981.

Again in 1982, a letter was sent from St. Edna’s staff to Cardinal Cody regarding 12 instances of Mayer’s inappropriate behavior at St. Edna’s and nine instances of inappropriate behavior at St. Mary’s and asking for the Cardinal’s guidance.

By June of that year there was a formal request to the Clergy Personnel Board that that Mayer be transferred, and in September of 1982, a memo in his file states that, “the evidence is insufficient to warrant a forced removal of Fr. Mayer from his position” and that if “Mayer is transferred in the near future, it must be construed that he personally requested the transfer.”

Staff at parish followed that response with letters to Archbishop Bernadin asking for Mayer to be removed, and recommended that he “not have any adolescents in his quarters or the cottage.”

By August of 1983, Mayer was transferred to Administrator, St. Stephen’s Parish in Des Plaines.

In the years that followed, incidents continued to surface. The Archdiocese settled a suit with a victim of Mayer’s abuse; a parishioner had a bizarre encounter with Mayer at St. Stephens, stating that Mayer was taking pictures of children passed out, having conversations about masturbation, and that Mayer had a private VCR library of a pornographic nature. There were reports of inappropriate jokes, serving of alcohol to minors, and the sexual abuse of a minor.

And while an agreement was filed in 1987 between Cardinal Bernadin and Mayer that Mayer avoid all unsupervised contact with children under the age of 21, he still was appointed as Administrator of St. Dionysius, in Cicero effective December 1988 by Bernadin. He also served as Vicar at St. Odilo in Berwyn where he was made pastor in 1990.

In 1991, Mayer reportedly had been removed from his assignment at St. Odilo for making sexual advances to parish boys. Bernadin met at St. Odilo with the parents of 25 children who were affected by Mayer’s abuse. DCFS began a formal investigation of the allegations at St. Odilo in 1992.

Following the disclosure, a 13-year-old girl came forward alleging she had been sexually abused by Mayer. In connection with the girl’s allegations, Mayer was indicted on four counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse, convicted, and sentenced to 3 years in jail.

Since then, Mayer has been accused by at least another six individuals and has been involved in at least two settlements. Mayer is included on the Archdiocese of Chicago’s list of clergy with substantiated allegations of sexual misconduct with minors. He was believed to be residing in Lake Villa, Illinois as of 1996. Mayer’s precise whereabouts and whether he has had access to children are unknown, according to the report.

It was not until 2005 that Mayer was removed as a Roman Catholic priest in the Archdiocese of Chicago. He was laicized in 2010, a part of the “Vatican 400” — 400 child molesting priests laicized by Pope Benedict between 2010 and 2012.

Fr. Thomas Job, Ordained 1970

This is a synopsis of information that was complied by Anderson & Associates from Diocese files the firm obtained through litigation.

Like many of the other priests whose files were recently released, the Thomas Job file indicates questionable conduct with young boys for years before he was ordained a priest. In fact, Job was reported to have had inappropriate conduct with children all during seminary and at each of his assignments as a priest, often taking boys to a cabin he owned with another priest. These reported abuses included him putting his hands down boys pants, fondling, swimming naked with children, mutual oral sex, masturbation, and providing alcohol to minors.

It is not clear however, whether anyone in an official church capacity was aware of the earliest abuses, as they were not included in reports prior to 2004.

By the early 1970s however, just after his ordination, official reports of child abuse allegations began to surface.

A survivor reports having told both his parents of abuse by Job at St. John Vianney School and Church, where he was Vicarius Cooperator from 1974-76, and subsequently told the Northlake police department.

After being made pastor of St. Cletus Church in La Grange in 1976, records show Job must meet monthly with Fr. Richard Keating, then Chancellor of the Archdiocese, because of “inappropriate behavior with some children in Northlake.”

It isn’t until 1983, while Job was Associate Pastor at St. Joseph’s in Libertyville, that he was told he was not allowed to be around children, and was placed under direct supervision (“monitoring”). This action followed a report that same year that Job took 7th and 8th grade boys into the cleric’s quarters in the rectory and the cleric’s home and taught them how to masturbate, and another report that he had engaged in sexual activities with a St. Cletus 17-year-old. After a handwritten letter from a student alleged such abuse, Job actually responded to the student with a letter of apology for “what he did to him.”

By 1985, Sister Peg Ivers, who was principal at St. Vianney, was reporting accusations of improper activities between Job and boys when he served at that parish. Ivers would later tell Leah McCluskey, Office for Child Abuse Investigations and Review, of her frustrations with reporting Job and her concerns to officials at the Archdiocese, stating that she eventually resigned as principal because she “couldn’t take it anymore.”

In 1987, Fr. James O’Connor, then pastor at St. Joseph’s, expresses concerns to Fr. Kealy that Job would have boys visit him in his room.

A handwritten note from that same year by the Vicar of Priests notes Job requested a leave of absence for this emotional health—mostly due to fears about being exposed in the press, and stating he is “in the middle of controversy.”

The Archdiocese supported Job, but stated in a confidential letter that they had full knowledge of the legal responsibility they had over him.

By 1988, Bernardin and Bishop Goedert assign Job to St. Bede’s parish in Ingleside

despite continuing allegations of abuse coming from his previous parish assignments. Job continued to write letters of apology for his previous abuses.

In 1990, though Job told his supervisors that he had no contact with kids, the Archdiocese still was receiving reports from Rev. Andrew McDonagh that Job was taking kids to his cabin, and that he and others were “very concerned about Fr. Job’s behavior in the parish with children,” and had talked to him about leaving St. Bede.

Job finally resigned in 1991 when the Archdiocese concluded that it was too risky for Job to remain a priest. Job still performed funerals and other sacramental duties, against the terms of his resignation.

Cardinal George declared Job a priest “not in good standing” in 2003. He was laicized in 2010, a part of the “Vatican 400” — 400 child molesting priests laicized by Pope Benedict between 2010 and 2012.

Files and timelines of other accused priests from the Archdiocese of Chicago are available for viewing via the Anderson and Associates website at www.andersonadvocates.com