Catholic priest faces new sex abuse charges

By Ros Krasny

CHICAGO (Reuters) - A Roman Catholic priest at the center of a sex abuse and cover-up scandal was taken into federal custody in Chicago on charges of molesting two U.S. boys including one on a trip overseas, authorities said.

Donald McGuire, who once worked with a group linked to Mother Teresa, traveled to Switzerland and Austria in 2000 to engage in sexual misconduct with a minor who is now 21, according to charges unsealed by the U.S. Attorney's office on Friday.

The 77-year-old Jesuit priest is being held without bond, labeled a flight risk by prosecutors. If convicted on federal charges, he faces up to 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

McGuire was convicted in 2006 of sexually abusing high school students on trips to Wisconsin in the 1960s but was free on bond pending an appeal.

He was jailed on Thursday in Wisconsin for probation violations and transferred to Chicago. The new complaint was filed on Thursday.

The complaint against McGuire, by an accuser identified as Victim A, says that McGuire sexually abused him from 1999 to 2003 in 12 states and six countries.

The youth was living with the priest in Evanston, Illinois, where McGuire had become a spiritual mentor to Victim A's family, media reports said.

Victim A and another boy, Victim B, outlined a pattern of abuse escalating from discussion of sexual topics through viewing of pornography to oral sex, according to the complaint.