Ex-priest accused of molesting kids says Pope Leo XIV OK’d his move near South Side school

 A defrocked priest from the suburbs says the future Pope Leo XIV signed off on his move in 2000 to a Hyde Park monastery near a Catholic school after the priest had been accused of molesting children.

Robert Prevost, recently named head of the Vatican and now known as Pope Leo XIV, is being accused of turning a blind eye to Chicago’s clergy abuse crisis during his tenure as head of the Midwest Province of the Augustinian order.
 

Former priest James M. Ray claims Prevost signed off on his move to a Hyde Park monastery—located less than a block from St. Thomas the Apostle Elementary School—even though Ray had already been accused of child molestation.
 

“He’s the one who gave me permission to stay there,” Ray told the Chicago Sun-Times.
 

Ray, pictured below, is listed among the Archdiocese’s accused sexual offenders and was placed on “limited ministry with restrictions” starting in 1990. Despite this, he continued working in three parishes until 2000, when the Archdiocese helped him find new housing that was supposedly safe for the public.
 

That housing ended up being St. John Stone Friary—just steps away from a Catholic school and across an alley from a child care centre. Neither the school nor the day care centre were reportedly notified.
 

The move was allegedly approved by Prevost, who served as the local head of the Augustinian order at the time. “That’s what the paperwork said,” Ray noted, adding that Rev. James Thompson—now deceased—also confirmed the arrangement. Thompson served as Ray’s on-site monitor.
 

Church officials at the time claimed Ray’s monitoring justified the lack of notification to school authorities. However, the Sun-Times reports the Archdiocese incorrectly stated in official documents that “there was no school in the immediate area.”
 

Michael Airdo, an attorney for the Augustinians in Chicago, disputed Ray’s version of events, saying the final decision rested with Thompson and former Cardinal Francis George. “The role of then-Provincial Prevost was to accept a guest of the house,” Airdo said, suggesting Thompson had “exclusive control” over new residents.
 

Ray remained at the friary for two years until the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops implemented new guidelines to ensure priests accused of abuse were kept far from children. He was removed from ministry that same year and was defrocked by the Catholic Church in 2012.
 

“I felt abandoned by the Church, but never by God,” Ray said. “My faith is still strong. I live out my life the best I can.”

In 2014, Cardinal George released internal church documents showing Ray’s victims were between the ages of 10 and 18. The records detail inappropriate physical contact, including back rubs that turned sexual, mutual masturbation, and a separate 1993 incident where Ray admitted to masturbating a paraplegic man in Medjugorje.

According to a 2023 Illinois Attorney General report, Ray molested at least 13 children. Speaking to the Sun-Times, he initially downplayed the accusations, but later admitted: “I can’t change the past… On a scale of 1 to 10, I was wrong, but it was a 1—or maybe a half even.”
 

This is not the first time Pope Leo XIV has faced criticism for inaction on abuse claims. As bishop of Chiclayo, Peru, between 2014 and 2023, he was accused of failing to investigate two priests despite receiving victim testimonies and documentation.
 

Though Prevost eventually met with accusers and advised them to report to civil authorities, the Church’s internal probe was later dropped due to a lack of evidence and expired legal deadlines.

In a 2023 interview, Prevost emphasised the need for transparency: “Silence is not the solution… There is a great responsibility in this, for all of us.”

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