Updated at 8:30 a.m. Thursday, June 25, with comments from the Surivors Network of Those Abused by Priests.
The Marianist Province of the U.S., an international Roman Catholic organization based in St. Louis, released the names of more than 40 priests and members Wednesday who sexually abused minors nationwide as early as 1950.
Of those listed, 19 served in St. Louis-area Catholic high schools, including Assumption High School in East St. Louis, Cathedral High School in Belleville, Chaminade College Prep, Coyle High School, DeAndreis High School, McBride High School, St. John Vianney High School and St. Mary’s High School.
Twelve of the men are now deceased. All priests and members found to have sexually abused a minor have been “removed from public ministry and assigned to a monitored environment” that prevents unsupervised contact with minors, according to the Marianist website.
David Clohessy, the Missouri director of the Survivors Network of Those Abused By Priests, said the move was “long overdue.”
“As an institution that primarily operates schools, [the Marianists] should have been the first Catholic organization to release this kind of information,” Clohessy said. “They talk about this crisis as if it was a series of stumbles and innocent oversights, when in fact, these men were allowed to live and work among unsuspecting children for decades.”
The advocacy organization has called on the Marianists to release additional information about the men listed, including the number of allegations made against them and when church officials were first informed.
In a separate announcement Wednesday, the Archdiocese of St. Louis released the names of two former clergy members with substantiated allegations of child sexual abuse.
One of the two former priests, John Condit, was ordained in the Archdiocese of St. Louis in 1945 before becoming a military chaplain. Condit later served as the pastor of St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church in the Diocese of Jefferson City from 1977 until his death in 1994.
Robert Marquitz served as a priest at St. Mary Magdalen Catholic Church in south St. Louis beginning in 1966, according to St. Louis County Library records.
In a press release issued Wednesday, the Archdiocese of St. Louis said that Marquitz had been "laicized," the official term for defrocked.
The abuse cases were brought to the Archdiocese of St. Louis, the press release stated, which triggered a “thorough investigation of the allegations by independent investigators." Following the investigation, a review board of lay Catholics assessed the findings and recommended that Archbishop Robert Carlson consider them substantiated.
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