The Catholic Church failed to disclose hundreds of accusations of sexual abuse made against priests and clergy members in Illinois, according to an explosive new report, which was released Wednesday by the state’s attorney general.
At least 500 clergymen are now believed to have been accused of misconduct, which is a far cry from the 185 that Catholic officials originally reported.
“The investigation has revealed that allegations frequently have not been adequately investigated by the dioceses or not investigated at all,” charged the office of state Attorney General Lisa Madigan. “In many cases, the Church failed to notify law enforcement authorities or Department of Children and Family Services of allegations of child sexual abuse.”
Some of the most common reasons for a diocese to not investigate, according to the AG report, was the fact that a clergyman was either dead or no longer in the ministry when the allegation first came to light.
“Dioceses failed to investigate allegations for deceased or resigned clergy even when they received allegations from multiple survivors,” the report states. “Failing to investigate deceased or resigned clergy ignores both the impact such a decision has on survivors seeking closure and that an investigation might lead other survivors to come forward. Failing to investigate also makes it impossible to determine whether other clergy, including those who are alive and involved with the church, helped conceal the abuse.”
By choosing to not “thoroughly investigate” the allegations, Madigan said the Catholic Church was not fulfilling its “moral obligation to provide survivors, parishioners and the public a complete and accurate accounting of all sexually inappropriate behavior involving priests in Illinois.”
“The failure to investigate also means that the Catholic Church has never made an effort to determine whether the conduct of the accused priests was ignored or covered up by superiors,” she added.
The AG’s probe began back in August following the release of a 900-page report outlining abuses by 300 Catholic clergy members — which involved more than 1,000 victims.
“The preliminary stages of this investigation have already demonstrated that the Catholic Church cannot police itself,” Madigan said, noting how Wednesday’s report only included preliminary findings. “Allegations of sexual abuse of minors, even if they stem from conduct that occurred many years ago, cannot be treated as internal personnel matters.”
Based upon the office’s review of the Illinois Dioceses’ files, the six Catholic dioceses in Illinois — Belleville, Joliet, Peoria, Rockford, Springfield and the archdiocese of Chicago — have received allegations of sexual abuse for approximately 690 clergymen. But the church claimed it was only able to identify 185 members as having been “credibly” accused.
“The Dioceses of Belleville, Peoria, Rockford, and Springfield did not take the basic step of publishing a comprehensive list of clergy who had been ‘credibly’ accused until the Office became involved,” the report says. “Even now, these lists, for the most part, remain difficult to locate on the Illinois Dioceses’ websites.”
The dioceses have started to do damage control. Several have released statements in response to the AG’s findings.
“Reviewing these past cases has also reminded us that many years ago people didn’t publicly discuss the kind of salacious allegations documented in these files,” Bishop Thomas Paprock, of Springfield, said in a statement. “A virtuous intent to protect the faithful from scandal unfortunately prevented the transparency and awareness that has helped us confront this problem more directly over the past fifteen years. We are continuing to learn and strive to improve our assistance for those who are victims and survivors of child sexual abuse.”
Catholic officials claim that they’ve been up front and honest about sexual abuse allegations since 2002, when they implemented a “zero-tolerance” policy in the US and began reporting all accusations.
The Diocese of Joliet says it has “received no formal or informal indication from the Attorney General that we failed to adequately investigate any allegation of abuse and/or report it to authorities.” Furthermore, no one has informed the diocese of “any inaccuracies or omissions in our files that would prompt additions or corrections to the list of priests with credible allegations that is on our website.”
The AG’s office says it will continue to probe the Catholic Church and release findings as their investigation progresses. It has urged other alleged victims to come forward and contact it at [email protected].