Marist Brother Robert Ryan
Title: Marist Brothers Catholic order hid abuse by member who helped run Chicago school in the 1970s, suits say
Author: Robert Herguth
Publisher: Chicago Sun-Times
Date: 07MAY2021
“I was groomed really from the start of school” by Brother Robert Ryan, says one of the men who sued. “It’s infuriating that the order knew this guy was doing this to children, and they just transferred him around.”
After Brother Robert Ryan died in 2017, a relative posted an online tribute, calling him “the favorite uncle” who “lived a giving life” and “selflessly” served God.
Two lawsuits paint a different picture of Ryan, one that’s become public only after his death at 83. They accuse him of having molested children over a yearslong span in which he was a member of the Marist Brothers Catholic religious order.
One of the lawsuits says victims of the abuse included students attending Marist High School on the Far Southwest Side in the 1970s.
At Marist, Ryan’s “sexual abuse of minor boys worsened in both frequency and intensity . . . and he began to engage in more violent conduct, such as anal rape and sodomy,” according to the lawsuit.
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