Editor's note: This is the complete text of the followup article to the BDN's series on Mark
McAllister, a former Boonville resident awarded a $600,000 settlement this summer
over claims he was abused by a priest while at Ss. Peter and Paul parish. This article first ran Friday, Aug. 28. The BDN is posting the complete series for a wider online readership because of its national reach, as identified in court documents and interviews. The BDN does not normally publish complete news articles online.
A common cause
Steve McAllister of Boonville said that he is “absolutely” proud of his son, Mark, and that he hopes
speaking publicly will help keep children from being victimized.
“My feeling is, probably Mark would have never had any problem had it not been for Jerry Howard,” Steve McAllister said Aug. 25.
Mark McAllister, formerly of Boonville, recently won a $600,000 settlement over claims that he was sexually abused by a priest — Gerald Howard — during the time he attended Ss. Peter and
Paul parish. McAllister talked about his experiences during an interview Aug. 21, and again at two
news conferences in New Jersey on Aug. 24.
On Aug. 25, Steve McAllister also spoke about those claims, at two news conferences in Missouri.
He said he didn't have any reservations about talking with the media. He said that he wants to ensure that Howard goes to jail in connection with Mark’s allegations.
Steve McAllister said that while he doesn’t think he was a model father, he and his son shared a positive relationship. He described his son as someone who got himself up for school in the morning, never had to be told more than once how to do something in a shop setting and graduated from high school with top honors.
Later, Steve McAllister said, Mark got his medical degree and married his wife, Monica, whom
Steve McAllister described as a wonderful woman.
Steve McAllister said that in retrospect, he probably cut Mark some slack growing up. As long as Mark did his school work, Steve McAllister said, he was willing to be permissive about other
things. But Mark never abused that privilege, Steve McAllister said, and while his son seemed to be pulling away during his teenage years, Steve McAllister said he attributed it to teen angst.
“I do think, on balance, that Mark and I had some respect for each other,” Steve McAllister said.
A priest remembered
At the time, Steve McAllister said, and before he knew of his son's claims, he also had respect for Howard.
As Mark entered his teenage years, Steve McAllister said, he had begun to hang out with some kids that Steve McAllister said he “wasn’t terribly impressed with.” Howard entered his family’s
lives, Steve McAllister said, as someone who he thought could help his son and “steer him through those somewhat tumultuous years.”
When Howard expressed an interest in spending time with Mark, Steve McAllister said, he was pleased. Steve McAllister said he remembers sharing that sentiment with his wife, Mary.
“My God, in the early ‘80s, a priest could do no wrong,” Steve McAllister said.
Steve McAllister said that his graduate field was social psychology and that he had several conversations about books, research and philosophy with Howard, who struck him as sophisticated and whom the family knew as Father Jerry.
He said he doesn't think he suspected that anything unusual was going on between his son and the priest. At most, he said, he might have observed that his son was spending an awful lot of time at the rectory. But Steve McAllister said that at the time, he would have thought it was better for his son to be there than out on the streets.
College and revelations
Steve McAllister said that in retrospect, there are things his son said and did in college that now make sense given Mark's claims of abuse.
On one occasion a year or two into college, Mark acted as though he didn’t remember Howard when asked about him, Steve McAllister said. Steve McAllister said he believes that even at that
time, Mark was repressing memories of his encounters with Howard.
Mark McAllister has said that he had no memory of his meetings with Howard until 20 years after he last saw him, when he began to have nightmares and flashbacks.
Too, Steve McAllister said, Mark always seemed to have an excuse in college for not wanting to attend Mass.
“I don't think he ever went to church with us after high school,” Steve McAllister said.
Steve McAllister said he thinks that he and his wife first heard their son’s claims about Howard in a phone call. That was preceded by a call from Mark’s wife, Monica, around the 2007 Christmas
holiday, he said. She told them, “‘Mark’s had a relapse,’” Steve McAllister said.
Steve McAllister said he and his wife knew that Mark had been in treatment previously. But this time, he said, Monica McAllister indicated that things were radically wrong, saying that his residency in Virginia was in a mess and that he had voluntarily checked himself into a rehabilitation facility.
It was sometime afterward, he said, that Mark called and told them about his claims.
Mark McAllister told the BDN on Friday that he first told his parents his claims about Howard in January 2008, after a therapist identified what he was describing as abuse. He said that while his parents at first expressed some skepticism, they indicated that if his claims were true, they would
get to the bottom of them.
Steve McAllister said he recalls being filled with anger toward Howard when he learned about Mark’s claims. He said he also felt a profound sense of waste for his son, whose life he believed
had been hurt dramatically.
A quest for justice
Steve McAllister believes the Catholic church “needs to go to confession.”
He said he doesn’t fault anyone in Boonville for Howard’s\ tenure at Ss. Peter and Paul. He said Ss. Peter and Paul School is a fine institution that has produced exceptional students.
Nor does he solely feel anger toward Howard.
“In a way, I don’t hate the guy,” Steve McAllister said. “I guess he’s something of a victim of his own hormones.”
But he said that in his opinion, representatives of the Diocese of Jefferson City knew everything, and he said he wants the information he thinks they had about Howard to be made public.
He said he thinks that Mark has gone on the record for a reason.
“I think Mark wants some of this graphic stuff to be made public,” Steve McAllister said. He said that if some people understood the nature of abuse, they might have a better appreciation for the negative results he believes it canhave.
Steve McAllister said that he and his wife stopped attending Ss. Peter and Paul in early 2008 because of the claims their son made about abuse he had experienced while attending the parish.
He said that while he’s not against religion, he’s been soured on the ethics of organized religion.
“I frankly want nothing to do with the (Catholic) church any longer,” Steve McAllister said. “I have no respect for it.”
Healing and speaking out
Steve McAllister said his son, Mark, gave him and his wife some peak moments in their lives.
Mark has been very successful, Steve McAllister said, and it took a great deal of courage to talk about what Mark claims happened in his past, something he said many people wouldn’t do.
“Mark’s going to be vilified, he’s going to be accused of all sorts of things,” Steve McAllister said.
But Steve McAllister said it’s his impression that his son is past the point of caring. Really, Steve McAllister said, a person only needs to please a handful of people — a spouse, a banker, probably an employer.
Beyond that, Steve McAllister said, “Why should we care?”
