We’ve been getting quite a range of reaction to yesterday’s cover story on Mother Teresa’s links to convicted pedophile priest Donald McGuire. Documents obtained by SF Weekly indicate that the “Saint of Calcutta” might have urged Jesuit officials to overlook a sex-abuse allegation against McGuire by a Walnut Creek boy in 1993.
http://liarcatchers.com/pedophile_tracking.html
We asked multiple church officials for comment prior to publication. The Missionaries of Charity (MT’s order of nuns), the Jesuits, the Vatican-deputized investigator of MT’s sainthood case, and the Archdiocese of San Francisco all declined to talk or did not respond to our calls and e-mails. But now the San Francisco Archdiocese has commented on the story for Univision Channel 14, which ran a story based on our reporting.
According to Univision:
La arquidiócesis de San Francisco expresó su tristeza ante las acusaciones del Weekly y destacó en un comunicado que ni siquiera el propio autor del reporte estaba seguro de que las cartas fueron escritas por la Madre Teresa.
“Estoy seguro que en su bondad la Madre Teresa perdona este vergonzoso ataque, pero es un día sombrío para el periodismo”, añadió.
Bilingual SF Weekly Staff Writer Lauren Smiley translates:
The Archdiocese of San Francisco expressed its sadness about the Weekly’s accusations and highlighted in the press release that even the story’s author wasn’t sure if the letters were written by Mother Teresa.
“I am sure that Mother Teresa, in all her goodness, would forgive this shameful attack, but it is a dark day for journalism.”
We called the archdiocese for further comment, particularly on the strong indications that the letter — which you can read here — was written by Mother Teresa, though it is unsigned. We’ll let you know if we hear back.
