The little boy didn't like church. There was something about church that didn't seem right, something he couldn't explain. The little boy could sense his father wasn't very excited about it either. And while he didn't completely agree with his father, he didn't completely disagree with his mother. The boy didn't yet have the vocabulary to describe what happened next: The priest stroked the boy's 'doofer' and then started shaking, the boy said. Over dinner that night, the boy told his parents. 'I felt like a tattletale,' he said later.
- 61: The Boy Who Didn't Go To Churchill Downs
- 61: The Boy Who Didn't Go To Churchill
- 61: The Boy Who Didn't Go To Churches
Quincy, Illinois — Is nothing sacred?
Fourteen-year-old Robert O'Donnell sat with his parents for Holy Mass at St. John the Baptist Catholic Church on the city's north side. A freshman at Quincy Notre Dame Catholic High School, O'Donnell had often thought about becoming a priest. As a child, he respected and looked up to priests. But what happened on this day in 1975, and for several years after, demolished his admiration for the priesthood and drove him far, far from the Catholic Church.
St. John's pastor, the Rev. Aloysius J. Schwellenbach, 55, came through the church's side door and whispered to O'Donnell's father, Charles. One altar boy didn't show up for Mass and he needed Bob to fill in. 'Of course,' the senior O'Donnell said, motioning for his son to get out of the pew. O'Donnell hesitantly complied, following Fr. Schwellenbach out the door, ostensibly toward the sacristy for vesting in a cassock and surplice.
Only that's not where they went.
Schwellenbach hustled O'Donnell across the sidewalk to the rectory, a new ranch-style brick house at 1019 Cedar St., just east of the church. This was odd, the youth thought. What could be so important to risk not starting Mass on time? The music was already playing inside the church. Soon enough, he got his answer.
'He shut the front door and led me to a small bathroom right inside the front door,' O'Donnell recalled. 'He was in his vestments. He pulled them aside and unzipped his pants. I said the church was full and waiting on him to start Mass. He said, 'What are they going to do?' It couldn't start without him. Free corinne bailey rae lyrics. He took my hand and put it in his pants and told me to fondle him.'
Two hands consecrated to the service of God were committing sacrilege — and the felonious sexual assault of a minor. But Holy Orders and sacred vows never stopped him before. Schwellenbach drank deeply from his cup of lust.
O'Donnell forced his mind to go elsewhere — anywhere. It was a defense against the perversity before his eyes. If he tried hard enough, it was almost like he wasn't there at all. He was practiced in the art of extreme self-distraction. 'I do remember thinking, 'Is there nothing that this man finds to be sacred?' The same hands that he used to clean himself up were the very same hands about to hold the Body of Christ,' O'Donnell said. 'I wondered just how far his sick mind would go, and how he could call himself a man of God.'
O'Donnell went on to serve at Mass that morning, but he could not get the disturbing images from his head. 'I was in shock,' he said. 'I was sick to my stomach.'
This was not the first time O'Donnell was sexually abused by Fr. Schwellenbach. Nor was it the most extreme. The boy would soon understand how far Schwellenbach would go to quench his predatory homosexual urges. It all started with the skillful manipulation of the adults in O'Donnell's life. It advanced to patient grooming of a boy who was just beyond puberty. Then it metastasized into forcible sodomy and other deviancy. It became one teen's Hell on earth.
O'Donnell has lived with the disastrous consequences for more than 40 years. Being the plaything of a deeply disturbed Catholic priest destroyed his youth and strangled his nascent Catholic faith. It badly wounded his ability to trust — anyone. But it didn't break him. The 58-year-old Florida logistics manager is speaking to the media for the first time about the sexual assaults, the betrayal, his unsuccessful attempts to report the abuse, and his long road to healing and hope.
The Devil Comes Out at Night
O'Donnell first came under Fr. Schwellenbach's influence and control in 1975, during his eighth-grade year at St. John the Baptist Catholic School. He moved from across the Mississippi River in St. Joseph, Missouri, to live with his father after two post-divorce years with his mother. He was, in his own words, a 'confused and defiant boy.' He got in trouble at school. He was a worry to his father, who sought help and counsel from his trusted priest. 'My father asked the parish priest to take me under his wing and attempt to get me on the right path,' O'Donnell said.
It was a most fateful decision.
At school, O'Donnell was kept in from recess; required to be in the presence of the principal at all times. Twice a week, he was sent to clean the church. Father Schwellenbach usually appeared at the same time, attending to his own duties. After a couple months, Schwellenbach had his eighth-grade charge report to him instead of the principal. The youngster cleaned the church garage, mowed the lawn and did any other chores assigned by the priest. 'He always made time to sit and talk,' O'Donnell said. 'I didn't think anything about it, as I knew he was trying to change my attitude for my future.'
The grooming was a gradual process. 'He was getting closer and closer physically to me when I was doing chores for him. An example was him touching my leg when we would talk,' O'Donnell said. 'He kept touching me in different places and started rubbing his body against mine.' Schwellenbach's advances got bolder after a few months. One day, O'Donnell said he stood up from doing a task and Schwellenbach kissed him on the head, saying, 'I really like you.'
Prior to starting high school, O'Donnell was baptized into the Catholic faith. Shortly after, Schwellenbach assigned him duties during Mass. At first, he was an usher, taking up the offertory collection. Later, he moved up to presenting the gifts of bread, wine and water. Before long, O'Donnell was an altar server. He grew to harbor an extreme discomfort with Fr. Schwellenbach. He kept busy with activities and two jobs just to avoid him. He planned to go out for the football team at Quincy Notre Dame. But Schwellenbach was a patient hunter. In July 1976, the priest asked O'Donnell's father and stepmother if their son could spend the night at the rectory. He spoke out of concern their son would slip back into his old ways and get into trouble. They readily agreed.
61: The Boy Who Didn't Go To Churchill Downs
'I was very nervous and worried about what would happen. I knew there was no way I could talk my father and stepmother out of it,' O'Donnell said. 'I looked at it as spending the evening with one of my buddies. .. Once I had told myself that this would be no different, I had come to the conclusion that it would be okay. Still, something inside me was a little worried.'
Schwellenbach prepared steak on the grill with baked potatoes. As they ate, the two chatted about nothing in particular. O'Donnell started to feel more at ease. After washing and drying the dishes, they retired to the living room and watched television. At about 10 p.m., Schwellenbach brought out a pillow and sheet. O'Donnell told him he preferred to sack out on the living room couch. It was time for sleep. Alas, it was also time for nightmares. As O'Donnell would find out countless times, the Devil comes out at night.
The boy was startled the first time Fr. Schwellenbach woke him. The priest stood over him, wearing only underwear and a T-shirt. 'I just wanted to make sure that you are sleeping comfortably,' the priest said, according to O'Donnell. About two hours later, Schwellenbach again woke a groggy O'Donnell and led him to his own bed. The youth didn't think anything of it and quickly fell back asleep.
'As the night went on, I woke up a couple times as he was fondling me,' O'Donnell said. 'The first time I told him to stop it. The second time I didn't say anything. The third time I woke up, he had a hold of my hand, fondling him, moaning. I was so tired from being woken up so many times that I offered little to no resistance.'
At the breakfast table in the morning, Schwellenbach asked the youth how he slept. 'Terrible. You kept waking me up,' the boy said. Schwellenbach asked him what he remembered. 'The last time I woke up, you had my hand on your genitals,' O'Donnell told him. 'He asked me what I thought of all that. I said, 'I don't think that's right.' He then kissed me on the mouth. I was so confused about everything. We ate breakfast and didn't say much at all.'
O'Donnell was desperate to get away. He told the priest he had to get ready for football practice, then hurriedly gathered his things and left. His mind was a whirlpool of confusion, hurt and anger. He hadn't even kissed a girl, and now this male authority figure was using him as a sex toy. It was just too much to process. So O'Donnell went to football practice, eager to 'take out my anger on others and give me confidence that I was not turned on by Father Schwellenbach's advances.'
Over the following few weeks, he kept extra busy with athletics and other activities. It was his escape. But Fr. Schwellenbach kept calling the O'Donnell residence to check on him. One day, O'Donnell was in the kitchen talking to his stepmother when the phone rang. It was Schwellenbach.
'He was telling me how much he missed me and would like to have me come over and spend the night again. I had come up with excuses, one after the other,' O'Donnell said. 'Finally, he ended the conversation and I thought, 'Whew, I dodged that bullet.' ' Not for long. Schwellenbach contacted O'Donnell's father and expressed concerns about the boy's well-being. When the senior O'Donnell came home from work, he told his son of Schwellenbach's worries and informed him he would be spending more time with the priest.
'I told my Dad that I really didn't want to do it,' O'Donnell said. 'He said that Father Al 'is worried about you again and frankly, I am too. Just do it.' I knew there was nothing that I could do to talk my father out of it. I told him that I would do it.'
O'Donnell found himself back at the St. John rectory, having dinner and watching television with Fr. Schwellenbach. 'I was telling him that after thinking about it, I don't ever want to do what happened last time again. He said that he was sorry I felt that way. I asked him if it bothered him, what happened. He said he had no regrets at all — and wanted to do more. I demanded that it would not happen again. Boy was I wrong. He was even more aggressive and more passionate towards me.'
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It was called the Promised Land. Twenty secluded acres bounded on the west and south by County Road 148, just south of tiny Philadelphia, Missouri. The parcel, a stone's throw southwest of the Big Branch River, has dense woods with two adjacent cottage homes on a private lake. The northernmost home has three bedrooms, a deck overlooking the lake and a fishing pier. 'The place was beautiful,' O'Donnell said.
On summer nights, the only sounds out here are the humming of the crickets and the occasional crackling of a campfire. The whispering breeze through the thick canopy sounds almost like conversation between the trees. Oh, what tales they would tell — if only.
The placid beauty and peace of rural Marion County hid a festering, dirty secret. Father Schwellenbach owned the north property. He used it as his weekend lair, bringing O'Donnell and other boys here many times for recreation — his recreation. The walls of the little house hid the rapes and molestation from ears and eyes at the neighboring cottage. No, despite the sign on the private entry road, this was no promised land. It was a land of broken promises — and shattered vows. The crimes committed here were of the eternal variety — and they cried out to Heaven for vengeance.
Trips to the Promised Land happened about once a month. Schwellenbach would typically tell O'Donnell's parents he needed help with yard care or some other project. They always agreed to have Bob go along. After all, they trusted Schwellenbach. The priest had counseled Bob's father during an extreme crisis, and likely prevented a suicide attempt, his son said. Schwellenbach helped the senior O'Donnell obtain a Church annulment of his first marriage. Things like that cement a bond. They earn trust. But for the priest, it was all part of grooming. Schwellenbach played it like a vintage Stradivarius under the experienced bow of its master. So O'Donnell often found himself the only guest at the Promised Land, with Schwellenbach the majordomo.
The weekends were all similar. Activities included fishing or hanging out with the neighbor boys. Those were the good things. Schwellenbach prepared a hearty meal, with steaks on the grill, green beans and potatoes. 'It was pretty much all day, grooming and building up his own fantasy,' O'Donnell said. 'He just kind of made a day of it. It was evening that was the nightmare.'
The nightmare: Schwellenbach never discussed what he was about to do. He just did it. And 'it' often involved forcible anal rape (sodomy), fellatio and other types of sexual depravity. Whatever the priest wanted, it was on the menu. O'Donnell took his mind away from it all while Schwellenbach abused him. 'My body was there, but my mind was somewhere else,' he said.
One weekend, O'Donnell was determined to stand up to Schwellenbach. He told the priest he was going to report his sexual assaults. 'He and I got into an argument at the camp. I threatened to tell them, to tell my dad,' O'Donnell said. 'It completely caught me off guard when he said, 'Here, call him. Who do you think he's going to believe?'
'So I stood there for a minute, then slowly hung the phone up. That's when I totally lost hope.' O'Donnell decided Schwellenbach was correct — there was no point in saying anything. 'Then I was totally submissive.'
O'Donnell estimates Fr. Schwellenbach sodomized him on more than 100 occasions over four years. That was in addition to the forcible kissing and the groping. The abuse took place at the Missouri cottage, in the St. John rectory — and even in the confessional. O'Donnell said Schwellenbach once left the priest side of the confessional box, entered the penitent's side and sexually assaulted him.
There were out-of-town trips to St. Louis and Dallas. For each trip, O'Donnell said, Fr. Schwellenbach was 'giddy like a schoolgirl, just talking about it.' On the drive to St. Louis, Schwellenbach wasn't paying attention and the car drifted off the right shoulder of the road. The priest overcorrected as he wheeled back toward the highway. The light blue Buick LeSabre went out of control, slid and ended up in the ditch. The car was heavily damaged, but neither Schwellenbach nor O'Donnell was hurt. The priest told O'Donnell's parents that the boy was driving and caused the mishap, O'Donnell said.
'He didn't slow down at all,' O'Donnell recalled. 'He just whipped it to the left to get back on the interstate from the eight- to ten-inch drop-off and lost control. We spun around a couple of times and went down a ravine.'
These trips were a change of scenery, but they included the same sexual abuse. 'He called it a mini-vacation,' O'Donnell said. 'He even had a fill-in priest.' The field trips were just an excuse 'to rape me all weekend,' he said.
O'Donnell said he is amazed at how brazen Schwellenbach was in his sexual predation, all the while playing the faithful pastor in front of parishioners — and a trusted friend to his own parents. 'If others knew what he was doing, it would make them sick physically,' he said.
'He had manipulated everyone in the whole parish. Each father, mother and child. I wondered if there were other boys that he had done the same thing to in the past. Was he doing this to others while he had me doing things to him that were anything but sacred?'
It's impossible to know how many boys Schwellenbach molested. O'Donnell said he believes there were many others in Illinois and three other states. The priest's cover ran out in March 1984, when a group of parents learned about some of the abuse. The parents regularly got together to play cards, while their children hung out together.
'The children were in the same room playing board games,' O'Donnell said. 'The parents were talking about how great Schwellenbach was. One of the boys interrupted them and said that Schwellenbach was touching him, kissing him like a boy does a girl.' One father became enraged and left to get a handgun, pledging to bring justice to Fr. Schwellenbach, O'Donnell said. Other parents called the rectory to warn the priest, and cooler heads prevailed. There was no gunplay or other revenge.
At least one of the families went to the diocese of Springfield and lodged a complaint against Schwellenbach. It isn't known which family, or the details of the alleged abuse. Shortly after, one of the families moved from St. John to another local Catholic parish. Others followed. The number of St. John parish families dropped 30% during Schwellenbach's first decade in Quincy. There was no prosecution based on the parents' complaint, though.
Schwellenbach slipped out of town, resigning his post on March 22, 1984 for 'health reasons.' The closest thing to ramifications came in 2018, when Schwellenbach was listed on the diocese's online register of priests who were 'credibly accused' of sexual abuse. The website does not include any details. Requests to the diocese of Springfield for more details on the 1984 complaint have gone unanswered.
Schwellenbach abruptly disappeared from St. John and Quincy altogether. The Rev. Landry Genosky, OFM, had a strange encounter with his brother priest in the St. John sacristy during the third week in March 1984. 'I was going to have the Mass at St. John's at 5:30 in the evening,' Genosky recalled, according to a friend who spoke with the priest. 'Father Schwellenbach threw the keys at me and said, 'Here, I've got to get out of town. You've got to take care of the wedding.' I wasn't even prepared for a wedding.'
And that was it. Schwellenbach was off to a treatment center for a few months. He moved home to his mother's place in suburban Chicago to help care for her until her death in 1985. Then he got a new address and a new assignment — out of state.
Most Rev. Thomas J. Paprocki, the current bishop of the diocese of Springfield in Illinois, offered to meet with O'Donnell. 'The incidents described in the allegations against Aloysius Schwellenbach are horrific,' Paprocki said in a written statement. 'I am open to meet with those who are concerned about the diocese's handling of their allegations, to listen to them and discuss what we could do to help bring them healing.'
From Vocation to Dissipation
Aloysius John Schwellenbach was born in Chicago on Oct. 2, 1921, to Aloysius J. Schwellenbach and the former Catherine Agnes Mueller. He was named after his father, and for St. Aloysius Gonzaga (1568–1591). He grew up in the Englewood neighborhood on Chicago's southwest side, an area populated at the time by German and Irish immigrants. Family life included regular Mass at nearby Sacred Heart Catholic Church at 70th and May streets — two blocks up, four blocks over. The church was founded by German immigrants in 1894, likely including his grandparents, Henry Schwellenbach and the former Hulda Forster. His grandfather was a stonecutter and his father a dairy company delivery driver and later, a streetcar conductor.
Spiritual life at Sacred Heart fostered three vocations in the Schwellenbach family. Aloysius Jr. went to the priesthood and two of his eight sisters to religious life as Franciscan nuns. Schwellenbach received his priestly formation at Archbishop Quigley Preparatory Seminary in Chicago, St. Louis Preparatory Seminary and Kenrick-Glennon Seminary near St. Louis. He was ordained on Easter Sunday, March 28, 1948, at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Springfield, Illinois. He said his first Mass at his home parish, Sacred Heart. A few weeks later, he was assigned to St. John the Baptist in Quincy, serving as assistant pastor under the Rev. Francis Schlepphorst.
There were indications Schwellenbach was a sexual predator even on that first parish assignment. A longtime St. John parishioner told of how the priest tried to grope him while they rode on an errand in the priest's automobile in 1950. 'He was an animal then, when I was a kid,' said the man, who asked not to be identified.
'One day we were going to go get something in the car for the nuns and he wanted me to ride with him,' recalled the man, who was 15 at the time. 'He put his hand over on my leg. He told me, 'You treat me right and I'll treat you right.' I just moved over closer to the door and let him go right on by.' Schwellenbach did not make another attempt. 'I think he would have if I let him,' the man said.
In early 1951, Schwellenbach was reassigned to St. Joseph Catholic Church in Granite City, Illinois. After a yearlong stay in that post, he landed an important job at the chancery and was assigned to the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Springfield. He became diocesan director for propagation of the Faith, and director of the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine (CCD). He became a nationally recognized authority on Catholic education, speaking at retreats and seminars. After 12 years in the chancery, Schwellenbach was sent back to Granite City in 1964 to take charge of the brand new St. Margaret Mary Alacoque Catholic Church.
Schwellenbach took a leave of absence from the diocese in 1968 and part of 1969. Health reasons were cited publicly. No other details were made public. It's unclear where Schwellenbach was during this time, although O'Donnell said he was later told by Bp. Daniel L. Ryan that the priest went to work at a parish in Kentucky. The diocese of Springfield would not provide details on Schwellenbach's clergy assignments. In September 1969, he was named pastor of SS Simon and Jude Catholic Church in Gillespie, Illinois. Seven months later, he became successor to the retiring Fr. Schlepphorst at St. John the Baptist in Quincy.
The boy who said he was groped in Schwellenbach's car in 1950 was working for Fr. Schlepphorst at the parish in the spring of 1970. Schlepphorst was nearing the end of his 25-year tenure at St. John. 'When he was going to retire, he said, 'You've got to get out of there,' the former employee said. ' 'You better get out because he (Schwellenbach) is no good.' He knew what was going on.'
Schwellenbach was prone to a ferocious temper and didn't like being told no, the man said. He described an incident in the old St. John rectory late in the summer of 1970. Schwellenbach summoned his assistant pastor, Fr. David W. Munn, to the office. At the time, no one knew what sparked it, but suddenly, wild fisticuffs broke out between the priests.
'I walk in and here they were fighting in the dining room, just going terrible,' he said. 'I thought they were going to kill each other. My God, everything was busted up. It was a nightmare. I ran back over to school and told the sister superior. She said, 'Do you think we should call the police?' I said, 'I don't know if we should make a big deal of it.' The witness said Fr. Munn didn't explain what sparked the donnybrook, but he was convinced Schwellenbach made a sexual advance on his subordinate. 'Father Munn said to me, 'You better get out of here! He'll kill you,' the man said.
Father Munn was the walking definition of a manly priest. He was a storied lineman for the St. Teresa High School football team in Decatur during the late 1940s. Four brothers who came after him all played halfback. 'Ask any St. Teresa fan to comment on the boys and the answer is nearly always the same: 'A rugged bunch of kids who played football for keeps,' wrote sports reporter Ennis R. 'Mack' McGee in the September 19, 1962 issue of the Decatur Review.
After being forced to play pugilist in the St. John rectory, Fr. Munn had seen enough of his new pastor. It isn't clear if Bp. William A. O'Connor knew the details behind the fight, but a short time later, Munn was transferred to Liberty, Illinois, to become pastor of St. Brigid's Catholic Church.
'He was telling me how much he missed me and would like to have me come over and spend the night again. I had come up with excuses, one after the other,' O'Donnell said. 'Finally, he ended the conversation and I thought, 'Whew, I dodged that bullet.' ' Not for long. Schwellenbach contacted O'Donnell's father and expressed concerns about the boy's well-being. When the senior O'Donnell came home from work, he told his son of Schwellenbach's worries and informed him he would be spending more time with the priest.
'I told my Dad that I really didn't want to do it,' O'Donnell said. 'He said that Father Al 'is worried about you again and frankly, I am too. Just do it.' I knew there was nothing that I could do to talk my father out of it. I told him that I would do it.'
O'Donnell found himself back at the St. John rectory, having dinner and watching television with Fr. Schwellenbach. 'I was telling him that after thinking about it, I don't ever want to do what happened last time again. He said that he was sorry I felt that way. I asked him if it bothered him, what happened. He said he had no regrets at all — and wanted to do more. I demanded that it would not happen again. Boy was I wrong. He was even more aggressive and more passionate towards me.'
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It was called the Promised Land. Twenty secluded acres bounded on the west and south by County Road 148, just south of tiny Philadelphia, Missouri. The parcel, a stone's throw southwest of the Big Branch River, has dense woods with two adjacent cottage homes on a private lake. The northernmost home has three bedrooms, a deck overlooking the lake and a fishing pier. 'The place was beautiful,' O'Donnell said.
On summer nights, the only sounds out here are the humming of the crickets and the occasional crackling of a campfire. The whispering breeze through the thick canopy sounds almost like conversation between the trees. Oh, what tales they would tell — if only.
The placid beauty and peace of rural Marion County hid a festering, dirty secret. Father Schwellenbach owned the north property. He used it as his weekend lair, bringing O'Donnell and other boys here many times for recreation — his recreation. The walls of the little house hid the rapes and molestation from ears and eyes at the neighboring cottage. No, despite the sign on the private entry road, this was no promised land. It was a land of broken promises — and shattered vows. The crimes committed here were of the eternal variety — and they cried out to Heaven for vengeance.
Trips to the Promised Land happened about once a month. Schwellenbach would typically tell O'Donnell's parents he needed help with yard care or some other project. They always agreed to have Bob go along. After all, they trusted Schwellenbach. The priest had counseled Bob's father during an extreme crisis, and likely prevented a suicide attempt, his son said. Schwellenbach helped the senior O'Donnell obtain a Church annulment of his first marriage. Things like that cement a bond. They earn trust. But for the priest, it was all part of grooming. Schwellenbach played it like a vintage Stradivarius under the experienced bow of its master. So O'Donnell often found himself the only guest at the Promised Land, with Schwellenbach the majordomo.
The weekends were all similar. Activities included fishing or hanging out with the neighbor boys. Those were the good things. Schwellenbach prepared a hearty meal, with steaks on the grill, green beans and potatoes. 'It was pretty much all day, grooming and building up his own fantasy,' O'Donnell said. 'He just kind of made a day of it. It was evening that was the nightmare.'
The nightmare: Schwellenbach never discussed what he was about to do. He just did it. And 'it' often involved forcible anal rape (sodomy), fellatio and other types of sexual depravity. Whatever the priest wanted, it was on the menu. O'Donnell took his mind away from it all while Schwellenbach abused him. 'My body was there, but my mind was somewhere else,' he said.
One weekend, O'Donnell was determined to stand up to Schwellenbach. He told the priest he was going to report his sexual assaults. 'He and I got into an argument at the camp. I threatened to tell them, to tell my dad,' O'Donnell said. 'It completely caught me off guard when he said, 'Here, call him. Who do you think he's going to believe?'
'So I stood there for a minute, then slowly hung the phone up. That's when I totally lost hope.' O'Donnell decided Schwellenbach was correct — there was no point in saying anything. 'Then I was totally submissive.'
O'Donnell estimates Fr. Schwellenbach sodomized him on more than 100 occasions over four years. That was in addition to the forcible kissing and the groping. The abuse took place at the Missouri cottage, in the St. John rectory — and even in the confessional. O'Donnell said Schwellenbach once left the priest side of the confessional box, entered the penitent's side and sexually assaulted him.
There were out-of-town trips to St. Louis and Dallas. For each trip, O'Donnell said, Fr. Schwellenbach was 'giddy like a schoolgirl, just talking about it.' On the drive to St. Louis, Schwellenbach wasn't paying attention and the car drifted off the right shoulder of the road. The priest overcorrected as he wheeled back toward the highway. The light blue Buick LeSabre went out of control, slid and ended up in the ditch. The car was heavily damaged, but neither Schwellenbach nor O'Donnell was hurt. The priest told O'Donnell's parents that the boy was driving and caused the mishap, O'Donnell said.
'He didn't slow down at all,' O'Donnell recalled. 'He just whipped it to the left to get back on the interstate from the eight- to ten-inch drop-off and lost control. We spun around a couple of times and went down a ravine.'
These trips were a change of scenery, but they included the same sexual abuse. 'He called it a mini-vacation,' O'Donnell said. 'He even had a fill-in priest.' The field trips were just an excuse 'to rape me all weekend,' he said.
O'Donnell said he is amazed at how brazen Schwellenbach was in his sexual predation, all the while playing the faithful pastor in front of parishioners — and a trusted friend to his own parents. 'If others knew what he was doing, it would make them sick physically,' he said.
'He had manipulated everyone in the whole parish. Each father, mother and child. I wondered if there were other boys that he had done the same thing to in the past. Was he doing this to others while he had me doing things to him that were anything but sacred?'
It's impossible to know how many boys Schwellenbach molested. O'Donnell said he believes there were many others in Illinois and three other states. The priest's cover ran out in March 1984, when a group of parents learned about some of the abuse. The parents regularly got together to play cards, while their children hung out together.
'The children were in the same room playing board games,' O'Donnell said. 'The parents were talking about how great Schwellenbach was. One of the boys interrupted them and said that Schwellenbach was touching him, kissing him like a boy does a girl.' One father became enraged and left to get a handgun, pledging to bring justice to Fr. Schwellenbach, O'Donnell said. Other parents called the rectory to warn the priest, and cooler heads prevailed. There was no gunplay or other revenge.
At least one of the families went to the diocese of Springfield and lodged a complaint against Schwellenbach. It isn't known which family, or the details of the alleged abuse. Shortly after, one of the families moved from St. John to another local Catholic parish. Others followed. The number of St. John parish families dropped 30% during Schwellenbach's first decade in Quincy. There was no prosecution based on the parents' complaint, though.
Schwellenbach slipped out of town, resigning his post on March 22, 1984 for 'health reasons.' The closest thing to ramifications came in 2018, when Schwellenbach was listed on the diocese's online register of priests who were 'credibly accused' of sexual abuse. The website does not include any details. Requests to the diocese of Springfield for more details on the 1984 complaint have gone unanswered.
Schwellenbach abruptly disappeared from St. John and Quincy altogether. The Rev. Landry Genosky, OFM, had a strange encounter with his brother priest in the St. John sacristy during the third week in March 1984. 'I was going to have the Mass at St. John's at 5:30 in the evening,' Genosky recalled, according to a friend who spoke with the priest. 'Father Schwellenbach threw the keys at me and said, 'Here, I've got to get out of town. You've got to take care of the wedding.' I wasn't even prepared for a wedding.'
And that was it. Schwellenbach was off to a treatment center for a few months. He moved home to his mother's place in suburban Chicago to help care for her until her death in 1985. Then he got a new address and a new assignment — out of state.
Most Rev. Thomas J. Paprocki, the current bishop of the diocese of Springfield in Illinois, offered to meet with O'Donnell. 'The incidents described in the allegations against Aloysius Schwellenbach are horrific,' Paprocki said in a written statement. 'I am open to meet with those who are concerned about the diocese's handling of their allegations, to listen to them and discuss what we could do to help bring them healing.'
From Vocation to Dissipation
Aloysius John Schwellenbach was born in Chicago on Oct. 2, 1921, to Aloysius J. Schwellenbach and the former Catherine Agnes Mueller. He was named after his father, and for St. Aloysius Gonzaga (1568–1591). He grew up in the Englewood neighborhood on Chicago's southwest side, an area populated at the time by German and Irish immigrants. Family life included regular Mass at nearby Sacred Heart Catholic Church at 70th and May streets — two blocks up, four blocks over. The church was founded by German immigrants in 1894, likely including his grandparents, Henry Schwellenbach and the former Hulda Forster. His grandfather was a stonecutter and his father a dairy company delivery driver and later, a streetcar conductor.
Spiritual life at Sacred Heart fostered three vocations in the Schwellenbach family. Aloysius Jr. went to the priesthood and two of his eight sisters to religious life as Franciscan nuns. Schwellenbach received his priestly formation at Archbishop Quigley Preparatory Seminary in Chicago, St. Louis Preparatory Seminary and Kenrick-Glennon Seminary near St. Louis. He was ordained on Easter Sunday, March 28, 1948, at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Springfield, Illinois. He said his first Mass at his home parish, Sacred Heart. A few weeks later, he was assigned to St. John the Baptist in Quincy, serving as assistant pastor under the Rev. Francis Schlepphorst.
There were indications Schwellenbach was a sexual predator even on that first parish assignment. A longtime St. John parishioner told of how the priest tried to grope him while they rode on an errand in the priest's automobile in 1950. 'He was an animal then, when I was a kid,' said the man, who asked not to be identified.
'One day we were going to go get something in the car for the nuns and he wanted me to ride with him,' recalled the man, who was 15 at the time. 'He put his hand over on my leg. He told me, 'You treat me right and I'll treat you right.' I just moved over closer to the door and let him go right on by.' Schwellenbach did not make another attempt. 'I think he would have if I let him,' the man said.
In early 1951, Schwellenbach was reassigned to St. Joseph Catholic Church in Granite City, Illinois. After a yearlong stay in that post, he landed an important job at the chancery and was assigned to the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Springfield. He became diocesan director for propagation of the Faith, and director of the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine (CCD). He became a nationally recognized authority on Catholic education, speaking at retreats and seminars. After 12 years in the chancery, Schwellenbach was sent back to Granite City in 1964 to take charge of the brand new St. Margaret Mary Alacoque Catholic Church.
Schwellenbach took a leave of absence from the diocese in 1968 and part of 1969. Health reasons were cited publicly. No other details were made public. It's unclear where Schwellenbach was during this time, although O'Donnell said he was later told by Bp. Daniel L. Ryan that the priest went to work at a parish in Kentucky. The diocese of Springfield would not provide details on Schwellenbach's clergy assignments. In September 1969, he was named pastor of SS Simon and Jude Catholic Church in Gillespie, Illinois. Seven months later, he became successor to the retiring Fr. Schlepphorst at St. John the Baptist in Quincy.
The boy who said he was groped in Schwellenbach's car in 1950 was working for Fr. Schlepphorst at the parish in the spring of 1970. Schlepphorst was nearing the end of his 25-year tenure at St. John. 'When he was going to retire, he said, 'You've got to get out of there,' the former employee said. ' 'You better get out because he (Schwellenbach) is no good.' He knew what was going on.'
Schwellenbach was prone to a ferocious temper and didn't like being told no, the man said. He described an incident in the old St. John rectory late in the summer of 1970. Schwellenbach summoned his assistant pastor, Fr. David W. Munn, to the office. At the time, no one knew what sparked it, but suddenly, wild fisticuffs broke out between the priests.
'I walk in and here they were fighting in the dining room, just going terrible,' he said. 'I thought they were going to kill each other. My God, everything was busted up. It was a nightmare. I ran back over to school and told the sister superior. She said, 'Do you think we should call the police?' I said, 'I don't know if we should make a big deal of it.' The witness said Fr. Munn didn't explain what sparked the donnybrook, but he was convinced Schwellenbach made a sexual advance on his subordinate. 'Father Munn said to me, 'You better get out of here! He'll kill you,' the man said.
Father Munn was the walking definition of a manly priest. He was a storied lineman for the St. Teresa High School football team in Decatur during the late 1940s. Four brothers who came after him all played halfback. 'Ask any St. Teresa fan to comment on the boys and the answer is nearly always the same: 'A rugged bunch of kids who played football for keeps,' wrote sports reporter Ennis R. 'Mack' McGee in the September 19, 1962 issue of the Decatur Review.
After being forced to play pugilist in the St. John rectory, Fr. Munn had seen enough of his new pastor. It isn't clear if Bp. William A. O'Connor knew the details behind the fight, but a short time later, Munn was transferred to Liberty, Illinois, to become pastor of St. Brigid's Catholic Church.
Munn gained local and national media attention for his hobby outside of the pulpit: drag racing. He spent his free time tinkering with his Plymouth GTX stock dragster with a 7.2-liter V8 Super Commando engine. On Friday nights, he raced at the White Hall Drag-O-Way. Sunday afternoons, he might be racing in St. Louis or as far away as Keokuk, Iowa. Munn's life was tragically cut short. He suffered a fatal heart attack in August 1971 while working underneath his car. He was just 38.
The man who witnessed the two priests fighting didn't stay but a year under the employ of Fr. Schwellenbach. 'He was such an animal with those kids,' he said. 'He was terrible to everybody.' The man came to fear that his own children might become targets for sexual abuse by the pastor. He said he was sickened by how poorly Schwellenbach treated the school nuns from the Poor Handmaids of Jesus Christ. He decided to quit his job and register his family at another Catholic parish. Schwellenbach didn't take the news well.
'He was in the office at the school,' the man recalled. 'I had the keys in my hand and I told him, 'You stick these keys up your a**' — right in front of the nuns. One nun got up and clapped when I said that. I walked out the door and never went back.' That same day, the sister superior of the Poor Handmaids had planned to meet with Fr. Schwellenbach. 'He was giving the nuns a hell of a time,' the former employee said. 'She was going to take her sisters out of there and didn't want him by them anymore, because he treated them like dirt.'
Next — Part Two: From Victim to Survivor
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Summary
Chapter 1
Chuck gets drunk nearly every night and is often violent with himself. After dark, Chuck and Jack routinely sneak out and go to Veronica's apartment, where they drink and play poker. Chuck's father, Mr. Bolger, is a church minister, and although Mr. Bolger does not expect Jack to believe as fervently as he does, Mr. Bolger does require that Jack join his the rest of the Bolger family in attending church. Jack is overcome by the liveliness of the gospel music and wants to wander over to the 'Amen Corner,' where parish members holler and clap in a show of faith. Jack refrains from doing so, however, afraid that Chuck will mock him and that, even worse, Mr. Bolger will think the gesture insincere and be disgusted. One night, after playing poker and drinking with Huff and Psycho, Chuck and Jack decide to drive to Bellingham. They do not have enough gas to make the trip, so they go to the Welch farm to steal some. The Welch boy, who is also named Jack, goes to school with the other boys, and is shy and 'shabbily dressed.' Chuck parks the car half a mile from the farm and siphons a few cans of gas from the Welch's tanks. In the end, the boys are too exhausted to drive to Bellingham, so Chuck and Jack go home to sleep. The next morning, the two boys are woken by Mr. Bolger. Mr. Welch has told Mr. Bolger that the boys have stolen his gasoline, and Mr. Bolger demands that both Chuck and Jack return to the Welch farm to return the gas and deliver a sincere apology. Mr. Bolger is patient but firm, and both boys are remorseful. When the boys go to the Welch farm, Chuck apologizes, but Jack panics and can't bring himself to speak or move. When they return from the farm, Mr. Bolger knocks on Chuck's door and asks how things went with the Welches. After a lingering silence, Jack confesses that he did not apologize to Mr. Welch. Mr. Bolger asks to speak to Jack alone, then tells Jack that he will have to call his mother to come and get him. Jack decides that he would rather join the army than return to Dwight in Chinook. The next day, Rosemary arrives at the Bolgers' house and begs them to keep Jack. They agree, but only on the condition that Jack work on the Welch farm after school. Jack would rather not do this, but concedes. Ultimately, however, Welch refuses this offer of help. Mr. Bolger arranges for Father Karl, a spunky and honest priest, to speak to Jack about his bad behavior. Father Karl does not deliver the trite sermon Jack is expecting. Instead, he asks Jack what Jack wants out of life and what he is doing. When Jack does not answer, Father Karl insists that there must be something that Jack wants, but that he is not going to get it by misbehaving.
Chapter 2
The sheriff arrives at the Bolgers' one night to inform Chuck that he is going to be charged with statutory rape, along with Huff and Psycho. The victim is an overweight, promiscuous fifteen-year-old girl named Tina Flood, nicknamed 'The Flood' by her classmates. Tina is pregnant, but she is not sure who the father is. Tina's father and the sheriff give Chuck an ultimatum: If he marries Tina, he will not go to jail. Chuck adamantly refuses to marry Tina, claiming that he is saving himself for someone he loves. The sheriff arrests Chuck, but he returns home later that night and announces that he is not going to prison, as Huff has agreed to marry Tina instead. Amidst the frenzy of the rape case, Jack is awarded a scholarship to the Hill School. Ecstatic, Jack rereads his acceptance letter obsessively and studies the school's alumni bulletin. Mr. Howard is delighted by the good news and invites him to come to Seattle to be fitted for a new school wardrobe. Rosemary is happy for Jack and tells him that she has found a job at Aetna Insurance in Seattle, where she will start in another week. Meanwhile, Jack's father has arranged for him to take the bus down to LaJolla and spend the summer with him and Geoffrey. Although Jack and Rosemary discover that Dwight has spent the money Jack earned from his paper route and Rosemary earned as a waitress, rather than saving it in a bank, Jack notes that his mother looks more youthful and happy now that she knows she is leaving Dwight.
Analysis
61: The Boy Who Didn't Go To Churchill
Throughout the memoir, Jack tries earnestly to impress others and earn the acceptance and compassion he has not found at home. Naturally, Jack wants this same affection from Mr. Bolger, who treats Jack with a distant politeness, even though he seems to be repressing some feeling of fatherly tenderness towards him. The repression of this tenderness stems from the fact that Mr. Bolger knows that, like Chuck, Jack is troubled and volatile, and consequently fears hitting on a nerve that may trigger an emotional explosion. Although Jack desperately wants Mr. Bolger to like him, he does not want to seem eager or insincere, and thus refrains from joining the celebration in the 'Amen Corner.' Jack is also afraid that Chuck will mock him if he participates, but his real concern is how Mr. Bolger will react, and Jack fears that Mr. Bolger will interpret Jack's participation in church as an insincere attempt to win praise and love.
Jack is repulsed by his own actions when he cannot bring himself to apologize to Mr. Welch for stealing from him. As he looks into the sunken, sad face of Mr. Welch, Jack is paralyzed, and is profoundly ashamed of himself both for stealing and for not expressing his remorse. Importantly, Jack's shame and paralysis are induced by a feeling of familiarity—the Welch farm bears a striking resemblance to Jack's ramshackle home in Seattle. Jack understands the Welches' struggle and poverty because he recognizes that their misery is the same as his own.
61: The Boy Who Didn't Go To Churches
While there is a part of Jack that identifies with the Welches, there is another part that condescends them, for they embody Jack's fears of failure. The Welches are Jack's 'defeat-dream, his damnation-dream,' working themselves weary in an attempt to get ahead without ever actually doing so. Jack sees the Welches as symbols of failure and defeat, so when the Welches refuse his help, Jack knows that this is the 'ultimate punishment.' When a family Jack has pitied and patronized deems him unworthy of serving them, Jack realizes that while his social status might be slightly higher than that of the Welches', he is much lowlier than them in terms of morality.
In talking to Jack, Father Karl hopes to provoke him to question himself and his motivations. Father Karl has faith that Jack is not a bad boy, even though he is on the wrong path, but he cannot reach Jack because Jack is simply 'not available to be reached.' Jack is in denial, having 'left a dummy in [his] place to look sorry and make promises' instead of being honest with himself and admitting his own faults and weaknesses.
