Fr. Chester E. Gaiter, S.J.
Ordained, 1976
Notes: Fr. Chester Gaiter was a priest of the Society of Jesus. He worked as a brother for approximately 14 years before being ordained in 1976. Fr. Gaiter was purportedly ordained at Loyola in Denver, Colorado and thereafter spent a year doing a pastoral internship at Ministry Training Services in Denver prior to his assignment as associate pastor at St. Matthew’s Parish in St. Louis, Missouri. Fr. Gaiter worked at Cardinal Ritter Preparatory High School in St. Louis, Missouri from approximately 1984 to 1993. He then worked briefly in the Diocese of Belleville in 1994. Following his time in the Diocese of Belleville, Fr. Gaiter is believed to have retired to the Jesuit Community in St. Louis University after being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. In 2007, Fr. Gaiter was one of four priests included in a settlement made to a former student of Cardinal Ritter Preparatory High School, who alleged that he was sexually abused by the four priests as a minor in the 1980s. A second lawsuit was settled in 2009 with another survivor who alleged that Fr. Gaiter sexually abused him when he was a minor student at Cardinal Ritter Preparatory High School in the 1980s. Fr. Gaiter is included in the Jesuits’ U.S. Central and Southern Province’s “List of Jesuits With Credible Accusations of Sexual Abuse of Minor.”
Assignments within the Archdiocese/Diocese(s) in Colorado: Denver
Assignments:
1976-1977 Unknown
1978-1983 St. Matthew Apostle, St. Louis, MO (STL)
1984-1985 Leo Martin Tertian House, Missouri Province Educational Institute, St. Louis, MO (STL)
1985 S.J. House, St. Louis, MO (STL)
1986-1993 St. Matthew Apostle, St. Louis, MO (STL)
1991-1993 St. Matthew Jesuit Community, St. Louis, MO (STL)
1994 St. Joseph, East St. Louis, IL (BEL)
1995 Unknown
1996-1999 Jesuit Community Corporation at St. Louis University, St. Louis, MO (STL)
2000-2004 Fusz Pavilion, St. Louis, MO (STL)
2004-2010 Jesuit Community Corporation at St. Louis University, St. Louis, MO (STL)
2010 Died