Missouri’s most-sued pedophile priest is sued again

Missouri’s most-sued pedophile priest is sued again

His alleged victim will speak for first time & use his name

Victims think he can still be prosecuted beg law police to act

SNAP to leaflet near homes of 2 ‘credibly accused’ ex-clerics

One is in Richmond Heights and the other is in South County

The 2nd was coaching kids in 2017 & is/was in Soccer Hall of Fame

He’s defrocked but was just ‘outed’ by archdiocese three months ago

And he lives less than a mile from a day care center and two schools

WHAT

Holding signs and childhood photos at a sidewalk news conference, clergy sex abuse victims will announce a new child sex abuse and cover up lawsuit naming St. Louis’ archdiocese new archbishop as a defendant. It is against a living local predator priest who is Missouri’s most-sued child molesting cleric.

They will also

-- go door-to door handing leaflets warning his Richmond Heights neighbors about him,

-- do the same with a defrocked, recently ‘outed’ perp priest in South County, and

-- call on St. Louis’ new archbishop to aler=t the public about these two predators, and immediately give their full work histories and personnel files to all relevant law enforcement agencies.

WHEN

Thursday, Oct. 8 at 11:00 a.m.

WHERE

On the sidewalk outside the ‘new’ cathedral on Lindell (corner of Lindell and Newstead) in St. Louis

WHO

A Black victim/plaintiff, speaking publicly for the first time ever, and four-five adults who were sexually abused as kids and belong to a support group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPnetwork.org), including the organization’s former long-time director

WHY:

---1) A new lawsuit charges that Fr. Michael S. McGrath – Missouri’s most-sued priest –molested a young boy at a Catholic-run, north city summer camp/program.

“McGrath has hurt more St. Louis kids than any other Catholic priest, nun, brother or seminarian,” said David Clohessy of SNAP. “Still, he walks free, because his church supervisors protected him for years and because some police agencies are lazy or intimidated.”

He now lives in the 1400 block Hawthorne Place in Richmond Heights, 

McGrath is accused of abusing as a seminarian, even before his ordination in 1975. He was removed from public ministry in 1997 and defrocked in 2005. He worked in parishes in at least eight cities (Florissant, Wentzville, Overland, Concord Village, Pagedale, Bridgeton, Jennings and St. Louis city). McGrath also taught in several parish schools and at DuBourg High School.

SNAP also believes that McGrath is one of the 12 unnamed accuse predator priests that Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt said last August could be prosecuted.

https://www.snapnetwork.org/group_predicts_archbishop_will_retire_next_month

http://www.bishopaccountability.org/McGrath_Michael_S.html

https://www.snapnetwork.org/_st_louis_most_prolific_predator_priest_is_sued_again_090211

https://www.archstl.org/promise-to-protect/list-release

---2) Fr. Robert Marquitz was publicly ‘outed’ as a credibly accused child molester in June by St. Louis Archbishop Robert Carlson and put on the official archdiocesan list of such clerics.

As recently as 2017, he was named the “Soccer Coach of the Year.”

https://soccerstl.net/2018/01/31/missouri-youth-soccer-agm-update/

Marquitz was a champion soccer player in the 1950s and 1960s, then coached at the parish and select levels, as well as for Special Needs Kids (SPENSA) and at the St. Louis Soccer Park.

https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/catholic-order-names-alleged-child-sexual-abusers-who-worked-at-st-louis-area-high-schools/article_7ce33c5a-88c3-5f56-a6cb-3f16c82535f5.html

Marquitz reportedly lives in south county at 10216 Highbury (near Reavis Barrack and I-55), less than a mile from Bierbaum Elementary (314 467 5500, in the Mehlville district) and Mary Margaret Day Care (314 631 8688) and 1.1 miles from Green Park Lutheran School (314 544 4248).

He has been inducted into the St. Louis Soccer Hall of Fame, headed by James Leeker ([email protected]) though any reference to him has recently been removed from the organization’s website. (SNAP will give copies of a ‘screen save’ showing Marquitz’ induction.)

SNAP worries that he has hurt other kids, perhaps even recently, and believes that police and prosecutors may be able to bring criminal charges against him. But that will only happen, the group feels, if church and secular authorities aggressively reach out to others who may have been molested by him.

Carlson claims he sent a letter about the allegations against Marquitz to a parish where Marquitz worked but refuses to reveal the name of that parish.

Marquitz was at Holy Trinity parish in north city and St. Mary Magdalen parish in south city (4924 Bancroft, 352-2111). He also taught at Rosati Kain (533 8513) and DeAndres high schools. (Trinity and DeAndres have since closed.)

He reportedly was ordained in 1964, left the priesthood in 1973, got married in 1983 and had two children by 1993 when he was formally defrocked.  (Church officials haven’t said whether he sought to be defrocked or if the archdiocese sought it.)

Copies of the fliers SNAP will hand to the predators’ neighbors will be provided.

Both clerics are on SNAP’s “Most Dangerous Dozen” list of local predator priests. Photos of both of the accused men are at BishopAccountability.org.

CONTACT

David Clohessy 314 566 9790,[email protected]