Since 1948 Loyola University Chicago had associations with twenty three men who at some point in their lives, some before, some after their time at the university, became Catholic priests. Some of these men were or became Jesuits, others belonged to other orders of the Catholic church. All of these twenty three at some point in their lives, before, during, and after they were associated with Loyola were credibly accused of child sexual abuse. These twenty three are the known cases. As the clerical sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic church continues to unfold, more instances of child sexual abusers associated with Loyola University Chicago could become known to the public.
In this section we present four detailed stories of the most egregious examples out of the twenty one and seventeen short summaries of the others. We focus on demonstrating the positions these various individuals held within the university system, and the reactions by both the Jesuit order and the university administration to the revelations of these individuals’ offenses.
Most of the men listed here are featured on the Society of Jesus’ Midwest Province list of Jesuit Priests Credibly Accused of Child Sexual Abuse, which was first publicized in 2018 and updated annually since. The other priests were either convicted of child sexual abuse, or are themselves featured on diocesan lists of priests credibly accused of child sexual abuse, or both.
Each entry consists of, where available, a photograph of the accused, a table that breaks down their biographical and career data as well as the status of their case, and a short text describing their connection to Loyola University Chicago, as well as what the priests were accused of. The four landmark cases, Donald McGuire, John Powell, Michael Gannon, and M. Lawrence Reuter each have an in-depth essay attached that explores their cases further than a website entry allows. Due to his large number of victims, the same is true for James S. Janssen.
Under the links to the individual cases you can access an article-length essay contextualizing the further clerical sexual abuse cases.
Donald J. McGuire
John J. Powell
Thomas M. Gannon
M. Lawrence Reuter