395 clergy accused of sexual abuse in Illinois
Report says Catholic Church officials have hidden the bulk of cases
CHICAGO – Nearly 400 Catholic clergy members in Illinois have been accused of sexual misconduct, but church officials have informed congregants of only a fraction of those, according to attorneys who represented clergy sex abuse victims across the USA.
A 182-page report, published Wednesday by the Minnesota-based law firm Jeff Anderson and Associates, includes the names, background information, photos and assignment histories of each accused clergy member.
“The danger of sexual abuse in Illinois is clearly a problem of today, not just the past,” the report concludes. “This will continue to be a danger until the identities and histories of sexually abusive clerics, religious employees and seminarians are made public.”
Anderson said he hopes the report will push church leaders to publicly identify hundreds more of the accused.
The men named in the report worked in the Archdiocese of Chicago and the dioceses of Belleville, Joliet, Peoria, Rockford and Springfield.
The Rockford Diocese said in a statement that it has not disclosed allegations against many of the clergy on Anderson’s list “because the accusations either have not been substantiated or are completely without merit.”
Diocese officials said they were unaware that one former priest on the list, the Rev. Ivan Rovira, had been found to have committed sexual abuse of a child after he left Northern Illinois in the early 1970s. The Brownsville, Texas, Diocese earlier this year placed Rovira on its list of “clergy with credible allegation of sexual abuse of a minor.”
Rovira admitted to Brownsville Diocese officials in 2002 that he had sexually abused a boy during his time in Texas. He was forced to leave the ministry and later fled to Mexico, according to the Anderson report.
“Every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of this list, and the list covers the time frame of 1908, when this diocese was established, to the present,” the Rockford Diocese said in its statement. Officials at the five other dioceses did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Attorneys culled the names of the clergy in the report from legal settlements and news reports detailing accusations of sexual abuse. Although lawsuits were filed involving many of the accused, the majority of the claims were settled, according to the report.
“We’ve chosen to reveal this information because the Catholic bishops and religious orders who are in charge and have this information ... have chosen to conceal it,” Anderson said.
The six Illinois dioceses released the names of 185 clergy members who church officials determined were credibly accused of abuse. The Anderson list includes those who were identified by the Illinois dioceses and more than 200 additional priests and deacons.
Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, who left office in January, issued a preliminary report in December that found at least 500 clergy from Illinois’ dioceses have faced allegations of abuse. The church has not publicly acknowledged or thoroughly investigated those claims, Madigan’s report found.
Madigan launched her investigation in August after a landmark Pennsylvania grand jury report detailed claims against more than 300 “predator priests” who had abused at least 1,000 victims over roughly six decades.
The list published Wednesday includes priests and deacons whose affiliations in some cases date back decades. Many of the accused have died.