Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul releases the 696-page “Report on Catholic Clergy Child Sex Abuse in Illinois” on Tuesday in downtown Chicago. The report names 451 Catholic priests and church leaders who abused at least 1,997 children since 1950 in the state’s six dioceses. Photo courtesy of Illinois attorney general
May 23 (UPI) — Child sex abuse at the hands of hundreds of clergy in the Catholic Church in Illinois has left behind thousands of survivors, according to a four-year investigation by the Illinois Attorney General who called the abuse “significantly worse” than previously reported by the church.
Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul released the 696-page “Report on Catholic Clergy Child Sex Abuse in Illinois” on Tuesday in downtown Chicago. The report names 451 Catholic priests and church leaders who are accused of abusing at least 1,997 children since 1950 in the state’s six dioceses.
According to the report, Catholic leaders had only listed 103 child sex abusers.
“The Clergy Report has been a long time coming,” an emotional Raoul told reporters Tuesday. “From the outset of the investigation, the Illinois dioceses pledged their full support and cooperation in assisting my office toward achieving these goals.”
“Cooperation from the dioceses aside, it was the survivors of child sex abuse who gave purpose and drive to this investigation. Absent their courage and willingness to come forward and discuss their experience, there would be no true investigative report.”
WATCH LIVE as I announce my office’s report on a multi-year investigation into child sex abuse by members of the Catholic clergy in Illinois. https://t.co/UNaJfXIxee— Illinois Attorney General (@ILAttyGeneral) May 23, 2023
Over the course of the investigation, the attorney general’s office examined more than 100,000 pages of documents held by the dioceses and received more than 600 confidential contacts from survivors “through emails, letters, in-person interviews and phone calls.”
Survivors’ accounts “demonstrate a troubling pattern of the church failing to support survivors, ignoring or covering up reports of abuse, and survivors being re-victimized by the church when they came forward to report being abused,” Raoul said.
“These perpetrators may never be held accountable in a court of law, but by naming them here, the intention is to provide a public accounting and a measure of healing to survivors who have long suffered in silence,” he added.
On Tuesday, the archbishop of Chicago, Cardinal Blase Cupich responded to the report, saying, “We must think first of the survivors of sexual abuse who carry the burden of these crimes through their lives.”
“On behalf of the archdiocese, I apologize to all who have been harmed by the failure to prevent and properly respond to child sexual abuse by clerics,” Cupich said in a statement. “Survivors will forever be in our prayers, and we have devoted ourselves to rooting out this problem and providing healing to victims.”
“When we learn of an allegation of abuse, we act promptly, report it to civil authorities, remove the accused from the ministry and investigate the allegation,” Cupich added.
While the archbishop said archdiocesan officials had not had time to review the report in detail, there are “concerns about data that might be misunderstood or are presented in ways that could be misleading.”
The report found that nearly all of the 2,000 survivors of Catholic church sexual abuse in Illinois continued to face “some form of mental health challenge in the years after the abuse,” according to Raoul.
While some of the cases go back decades and were counted in previous reporting, the attorney general said those survivors still need help.
“The Catholic dioceses and archdiocese in Illinois can, and should, recommit to providing those survivors the ongoing support they need and deserve.”
