Celebrity

Chicago Priest Accused Of Abuse Drops Shocking Allegation About Pope Leo

Published on May 21, 2025

The new pope is the target of a shocking accusation from a defrocked priest who was accused of sexually assaulting at least 13 youngsters.

When Robert Prevost was the director of the Catholic Church’s Augustinian order’s Midwest Province, he was accused of ignoring the Church’s sexual abuse issue in Chicago. Prevost was named the next head of the Vatican earlier this month.

James M. Ray, a former priest, now asserts that Prevost approved his relocation to a monastery in Hyde Park close to a Catholic primary school, even though Ray had previously been charged with child abuse.

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

Since 1990, the priest has been under ‘restricted ministry with restrictions’ due to allegations of sexual abuse, according to an Archdiocesan list of accused sexual offenders.

He nevertheless worked for three parishes before the Archdiocese of Chicago intervened in 2000 to assist him in locating a residence where he wouldn’t endanger the public.

But in the end, they permitted Ray to remain for two years at the St John Stone Friary, which is across the street from a creche facility and less than a block from St Thomas the Apostle Elementary School.

Ray, who has never been convicted of a crime and is not included on any official sex offender databases, moved into the region, but neither the school nor the child care centre were informed of his arrival.

Rather, archdiocesan authorities falsely claimed in documents that “there was no school in the immediate area,” according to the Sun-Times.

Regarding his relocation to the neighbourhood, Ray stated that he had to locate housing because his previous home “was going to be torn down.”

He stated that the vicar for priests in the archdiocese, who reported to the late Cardinal Francis George, reached out to various church groups to enquire if any had space available for him.

Ray asserted that ‘the only one that responded’ were the Augustinians.

Ray claimed that Prevost, who is now Pope Leo XIV, granted him the ultimate go-ahead to enter into the friary.

When asked how he knows, the former priest said, “That’s what the paperwork said and I think Jim said,” referring to Rev. James Thompson, a now-deceased Augustinian who lived at the monastery and served as Ray’s on-site monitor while he lived there.

According to church officials at the time, Prevost allegedly failed to alert the heads of St. Thomas the Apostle Catholic school since Ray was expected to be constantly watched at the friary.

However, it appears that Michael Airdo, a long-time Chicago attorney for the Augustinians, is now attempting to disassociate the pope from Ray’s action.

Rather, he blamed Thompson and the late cardinal.

Airdo asserted that Thompson “had exclusive control over the acceptance of any new residents,” adding that the then-Provincial Prevost’s job was to accept guests at the indicated remuneration rates.

After that, Ray stayed at the monastery for two years before being moved in accordance with new guidelines that the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops had established to keep priests who were suspected of preying on children physically apart from them.

That year, following an explosive Boston Globe series on the sexual abuse issue in the Catholic Church, he was likewise removed from public ministry.

Ray was defrocked by the Catholic Church ten years later, in 2012.

He recalled, “I never felt abandoned by God, but I felt abandoned by the Church.”

“My faith is still strong. I live out my life each day the best I can,” Ray said, claiming that whenever someone brings up his sexual assault allegations “there’s a pain in my chest.”

George made the internal records of many of the accused priests in the Chicago area publicly available two years after Ray was defrocked.

It revealed that Ray’s victims were between the ages of 10 and 18.

The records further state that “it appears that Jim Ray may have masturbated with an additional three named males, as indicated below.”

“The common theme within these three formal allegations of sexual abuse was that Jim Ray became close to their families… Then Jim Ray physically touched them inappropriately by having them sit on his lap, which over time led to him giving them back rubs that eventually went lower.”

Each of the victims reported that while sitting on his lap or during the back rubs they “felt his (Jim Ray’s) erect pe**s.” The back rubs became mutual and also led to mutual masturbation.

Ray allegedly confessed to church officials to another occurrence during a 1993 vacation to Medjugorje, a place in the Balkan region of Europe where the Virgin Mary was rumoured to have appeared, according to church records obtained by the Sun-Times.

While at the airport, the records say Ray “met a paraplegic who asked him (Jim Ray) to masturbate him, which he (Jim Ray) admittedly did.”

According to a 2023 Illinois Attorney General report, Ray allegedly sexually assaulted at least 13 youngsters.

Ray attempted to minimise the accusations in an interview with the Sun-Times, claiming he was merely massaging a young man’s back.

However, he changed his mind after being made aware of how severe the accusations against him were.

“I can’t change the past. I don’t necessarily want to defend myself either. But on a scale of 1 to 10, I was wrong, but it was a 1 or maybe a half even,” Ray said.

“It wasn’t a child. Was a young adult, over 20. I was wrong, and I got to live with that.”

Pope Leo XIV, however, has already been charged with ignoring the Church’s child s*x abuse issue.

His failure to launch a formal inquiry into allegations of s*xual abuse committed by two priests in the Diocese of Chiclayo, Peru, which he oversaw from 2014 until 2023, has previously drawn criticism.

According to the alleged victims, the Diocese purposefully prevented the Church from taking action against the accused priests in 2022 by downplaying the specifics and supporting documents of their claims that they provided to the Vatican while Prevost was in charge.

Prevost finally met with the accusers in April 2022 and urged them to take their case to the civil authorities while the church conducted its investigation, according to The Pillar, a Catholic news organisation that looks into the church.

That probe reportedly “was shelved for lack of evidence and because the statute of limitations had expired.”

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests stated that it collaborated with other groups to ensure that the 135 eligible cardinals who chose Prevost were fully aware of his purported inaction.

“This person will be scrutinized from left to right,” said Lopez de Casas, the group’s national vice president who hopes Prevost’s election will shine a brighter light on abuse within the Church.

“That’s helpful for victims everywhere because we have this pope who will be under the public eye in terms of things he was involved with in the past,” he said.

Regarding the sexual abuse problem, Prevost stated in a 2023 interview with Vatican Media that “silence is not the solution.”

“We must be transparent and honest, because otherwise their wounds will never heal,” the future pope said at the time. “There is a great responsibility in this, for all of us.”

Now, Ray says Prevost’s ordination carries “very positive vibes” overall.