GA--FACT SHEET ON HIDDEN GEORGIA PREDATOR PRIESTS

FACT SHEET ON HIDDEN GEORGIA PREDATOR PRIESTS 

According to legal records, church documents and mainstream news accounts (mostly from outside Georgia) and other sources, these proven, admitted or credibly accused child molesting Catholic clerics have worked in Georgia but attracted little or no public attention in the state.

Because we want to protect the vulnerable, heal the wounded and expose the truth, we want Georgia Catholic officials to permanently post on church websites the names of all predator priests who have worked or lived – or now work or live – in the Savannah diocese and Atlanta archdiocese. (More on this at the end of this fact sheet.)

Information (and sometimes photos) of these men are available at BishopAccountability.org

The Predators

--Fr. Donald J. McGuire, a high profile, now convicted Jesuit who was Mother Teresa’s spiritual advisor. He led three retreats in central Georgia in the 1990s. Attendees included Savannah area potential seminarians.

From 2000 to 2003, two Georgia families whose teenage sons worked as ‘personal servants’ to Fr. McGuire wrote to Savannah church officials describing the teens “being shown pornography, sharing a bed with Fr. McGuire, nudity, psychological abuse, sexual teasing as well as other suspected sexual abuse.”

http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news2007/11_12/2007_11_01_Felty_BishopSought.htm

--Fr. Jonathan W. Franklin, a Benedictine who committed suicide before his criminal trial on charges of sexually assaulting 12 year old boy. (He worked in Savannah, Atlanta, Florida and Louisiana.)

http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news13/1986_08_01_UPI_CatholicPriest_Jonathan_Franklin_1.htm

http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news/2002_05_25_PlainDealer_SuicidesFollow.htm

--Fr. Charles G. Coyle, a Jesuit who was suspended and is accused of molesting at least two boys and spent time in Boston MA, Houston TX, Mobile AL, New Orleans LA and Baltimore MD. (He was in Atlanta from 1991-1995 at Ignatius House.)

http://www.bishopaccountability.org/assign/Coyle_Charles_G_SJ.htm

--Fr. Charles Arnold Bartles, a Jesuit, who worked in Kansas, Florida, Alaska, Louisiana, Jamaica and Brazil and was, in 2010, accused of molesting at least one child. (He was at in Atlanta the Marist School, with about 700 students, from 1972-78.)

http://www.bishopaccountability.org/assign/Bartles_Charles_Arnold_sj.htm

--Fr. Anthony “Tony” Jablonowski, who worked or lived in Arizona, Florida and Ohio and pleaded no contest to 2004 charges of abusing of a teenager and had to register as sex offender. (He worked at St. Mark’s Catholic church in Clarksville, Georgia in the Atlanta archdiocese.)

http://www.snapnetwork.org/snap_press_releases/2005_press_releases/091305_victims_write_six_bishops.htm

-- Fr. Robert D. Huneke, who faces at least three child sex abuse reports and was included in a grand jury investigation report in New York. (Around 2002, he worked as a high school guidance counselor in Atlanta at the Marist school.)

http://www.bishop-accountability.org/ny-rockvillecentre/accused_priests.htm#huneke

--Fr. William Groves who is now at a church despite having pled guilty to felony abuse of a boy and allegedly sheltering “runaway Indian and Hispanic kids and giving them drugs and alcohol.”(He received sex abuse counseling at a center in Atlanta in the 1990s, according to the Denver Post.)

http://www.bishopaccountability.org/news3/2002_04_29_Mitchell_TwoAbusive_Groves_and_Galvan.htm

He’s now vice treasurer at the Spiritual Light Center in Franklin, North Carolina (828-369-3065). He can be reached at [email protected] and 828 371 6803. Center board members include Arthur Cataldo  [email protected], Dr. Millard Deutsch  [email protected], Jim & Luci Swanson   [email protected], and Kay Smith [email protected]

http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news2014/01_02/2014_01_15_Clohessy_Co.htm

http://spirituallightcenter.com/news-archive/nl15.01.pdf

Summary

Last week, the Seattle Catholic archdiocese released a list of 77 child molesting clerics who worked there.http://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-northwest-news/index.ssf/2016/01/list_of_77_child-sex_abusers_r.html

In the last year or so, about six Minnesota-based Catholic institutions have released such lists. Yesterday, the Yakima Catholic diocese said it may do the same in March. But two North Dakota dioceses just refused to release such lists.

http://www.yakimaherald.com/news/local/names-of-yakima-valley-clergy-accused-of-sexual-abuse-may/article_a68081c0-c260-11e5-a4ef-b38274b0f776.html

http://www.inforum.com/news/3931507-lists-accused-nd-priests-still-under-wraps

More than 30 US bishops have released lists. http://www.bishop-accountability.org/AtAGlance/lists.htm

It’s the quickest, easiest way to warn parents, police, prosecutors, parishioners and the public about predator priests. And it’s the very least Savannah Bishop Gregory Hartmayer (912 201 4100 or 4051 or 4112), Archbishop Wilton Gregory and other church officials should do to protect the vulnerable, heal the wounded and expose the truth.

http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news2007/11_12/2007_11_01_Felty_BishopSought.htm

And we urge anyone who saw, suspected or suffered child sex crimes or cover ups in any institution to speak up, expose wrongdoers and protect kids by calling secular authorities like police, prosecutors or independent sources of help like therapists and support groups, not church officials.

Finally, we urge Georgia Catholic officials to spread the word about a new state law that makes kids safer by enabling child sex abuse victims to file civil lawsuits against those who commit or conceal sexual violence.

Last year, Georgia lawmakers opened an unusual “window” giving potentially hundreds of child sex abuse victims the chance to expose their predators in court. We want Hartmayer and Gregory to publicize this law – in church bulletins and pulpit announcements - so more molesters can be caught and kept away from kids.

http://www.firstcoastnews.com/story/news/features/2015/03/27/georgia-hidden-predator-act/70528436/

http://hamilton-griffin.com/sex-abuse-statute-of-limitations-reform-2015-year-in-review-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly-justia-com/

Only a handful of states (California, Delaware, Hawaii and Minnesota) have adopted a measure like this, which gives almost anyone who was abused as a child by anyone the chance to file a civil suit no matter when the alleged crimes took place. Victims’ advocates applaud the law, saying it protects kids by making public the names of proven, admitted and credibly accused child molesters, most of who still walk free and work or live among unsuspecting families, neighbors and co-workers.

Until now, an archaic and predator-friendly statute of limitations has enabled most adults who commit or conceal child sex crimes to escape detection. The “window” the best, cheapest, quickest and safest way to safeguard kids and prevent crimes by exposing predators.

The “window” closes in July 2017 and covers victims up to age 53 who have not previously sued.

(SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, is the world’s oldest and largest support group for clergy abuse victims. SNAP was founded in 1988 and has more than 20,000 members. Despite the word “priest” in our title, we have members who were molested by religious figures of all denominations, including nuns, rabbis, bishops, and Protestant ministers. Our website is SNAPnetwork.org)

Contact - David Clohessy (314-566-9790 cell, [email protected]), Barbara Dorris (314-503-0003 cell, [email protected]), Barbara Blaine (312-399-4747, [email protected])