Legal/Law/Criminal Justice and Reform

Over 400 Catholic Clergy Abused Nearly 2000 Children, Illinois Attorney General Reveals In New Report

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• A new report by Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul found that almost 2,000 children had been abused by over 400 Catholic clergymen since 1950.
• Abuse survivors said that they suffered from mild to severe mental health problems, addiction, alcoholism, economic repercussions and suicidality, according to the report.
• “As explained in the recommendations section of this report, more work remains, but this investigation resulted in significant steps forward in the dioceses’ policies relating to investigations, disclosure and transparency, and survivor care and communications,” Raoul said in a statement. 

Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul found that 451 members of the Catholic clergy had abused at least 1,997 children since 1950, according to a new report.

The investigation began in 2018, spearheaded by Raoul’s predecessor Lisa Madigan, after a report in Pennsylvania found that over 300 Catholic clergies had sexually abused hundreds of children in the state. Raoul took over the investigation in 2019 and released the “Report on Catholic Clergy Child Sex Abuse In Illinois” on Tuesday, finding that earlier estimates of abuse in the state by the church fell significantly short of the actual numbers.

“Before this investigation, the Catholic dioceses of Illinois publicly listed only 103 substantiated child sex abusers,” Raoul said in a statement released on Tuesday. “By comparison, this report reveals names and detailed information of 451 Catholic clerics and religious brothers who abused at least 1,997 children across all of the dioceses in Illinois. As explained in the recommendations section of this report, more work remains, but this investigation resulted in significant steps forward in the dioceses’ policies relating to investigations, disclosure and transparency, and survivor care and communications.”

The investigation found 494 “substantiated” child sex abusers in the church but reduced the number to 451 since several individuals served at multiple sites. The 689-page report noted that the Archdiocese of Chicago alone had housed 275 abusers during the past seven decades.

The victims that spoke with the AG’s office reported that, in the aftermath of the abuse, they suffered from mild to severe mental health problems, addiction, alcoholism, economic repercussions and suicidality, according to the report.

The Archdiocese of Chicago, and the Dioceses of Belleville, Joliet, Peoria, Rockford, and Springfield released a joint statement last week ahead of the report’s release, as well as a summary of their cooperation with the state’s investigation. The Archdiocese said that the church’s response had been “inadequate” to the pervasive sexual abuse happening to the children under its care and explained the resources available to victims of abuse.

Bishop David Malloy of the Diocese of Rockford apologized for “the pain endured by victim survivors of childhood sexual abuse,” but also claimed that there were inaccuracies in the AG’s report, according to a prepared statement given to the Daily Caller News Foundation.

“For example, there are statements/allegations in the report that there are known abusers actively ministering in our diocese.  To the best of our knowledge that is simply not true,” the statement read. “There is no cleric or lay person in ministry or employment in the Diocese of Rockford with a credible accusation against him or her.  At no time during the 4 ½ years-long investigation by the Attorney General’s office was the Diocese ever informed that the Attorney General holds this view.”

Raoul’s report found that Rockford had a total of 24 abusive clergymen and “religious brothers.” The report also noted that while the diocese was the first one to “implement policies and procedures to respond formally to incidents of clergy misconduct,” it also hired a priest convicted of abusing a 13-year-old boy around the same time.

“Bishop O’Neill was familiar with [Father Joseph Lessard’s] past, yet agreed to provide refuge to him in the Diocese of Rockford,” the report read. “He justified his decision with chilling reasoning: ‘We have to take some in since we have some too.'”

Raoul recommended that following the report the Archdiocese and the dioceses should disclose all known offenders on a public list to their congregations and begin investigations into all credible allegations.

“As explained in the recommendations section of this report, more work remains, but this investigation resulted in significant steps forward in the dioceses’ policies relating to investigations, disclosure and transparency, and survivor care and communications,” Raoul said in the statement.