Father John McGeever
Ordained: 1968
Died: 1993
Assigned as follows:
- 1969-1979 St. Patrick's (Huntington, NY)
- 1980 Holy Spirit (New Hyde Park, NY)
- 1981-1987 St. Agnes Cathedral (Rockville Centre, NY)
- 1988 Corpus Christi (Mineola, NY)
- 1989-1993 St. Joachim (Cedarhurst, NY)
Summary of Abuse Allegations Against Father John McGeever:
Father John McGeever was a Brother of Mercy before becoming a priest. According to media reports, in 2014, a man accused Father McGeever of child sexual abuse for two years starting in 1981 when he was a 10-year-old St. Agnes Cathedral altar boy in the Diocese of Rockville Centre. He said the priest, would take him to the basement of the rectory for what he called a "retest" of the prayers.
"You know what's about to happen to you. . . . You don't know the words, and of course you get it wrong. That's when the punishment happened," the survivor said.
He said he was sodomized in that basement about 50 times, and that Father McGeever "manipulated" him into remaining silent. Telling his family about the abuse the survivor said, "This isn't something that happened to me 30 or 40 years ago and now I'm able to move past it. I actually live in pain from that every single day of my life."
In 2017, a second survivor alleged that Father McGeever sexually abused him from 1983 through 1993, starting when he was 14 years old. The alleged abuse occurred at St. Agnes Cathedral in Rockville Centre, Corpus Christi in Mineola, and at St. Joachim in Cedarhurst. Father McGeever paid the boy to do work around St. Agnes and asked him to shower with him so he wouldn't fall because he had a bad leg. He threatened to send the boy to foster care if he told anyone.
"He said people wouldn't understand if I told them that I had to help him in the shower and help stretch his leg and things like that," the survivor said.
Father McGeever died suddenly of a heart attack in November 1993. Father McGeever is listed on the Diocese of Rockville Centre's 2021 List of Clergy Credibly Accused of Sexual Abuse of a Minor.
Horowitz Law is a law firm representing victims and survivors of sexual abuse by Catholic priests and other clergy in the Diocese of Rockville Centre in New York. If you need a lawyer because you were sexually abused by a priest in New York, contact our office today. In October 2020, the Rockville Centre Diocese filed for federal bankruptcy protection. The Court will resolve all claims of sexual abuse in this process but strict filing deadlines will apply and no late claims will be considered, so contact us today. Our lawyers have decades of experience representing survivors of clergy sexual abuse in New York and nationwide. We can help.
Contact us at 888-283-9922 or adam@adamhorowitzlaw.com to discuss your options today.