Catholic clergymen abused over 2,000 children in Illinois, says state attorney general 

A five-year investigation by the Illinois attorney general’s office found that more than 450 Catholic clerics sexually abused almost 2,000 children in the dioceses over 70 years. 

The report of the investigation, which was released on Tuesday, details the hundreds of abuse cases by the clergy in the state’s six Catholic dioceses since 1950 in more than 696 pages.

"It is my hope that this nearly 700-page report will provide some closure to survivors of child sex abuse by Catholic clerics by shining a light both on those who violated their positions of power and trust, and on the individuals in church leadership who covered up that abuse," said state Attorney General Kwame Raoul in a news conference detailing the findings. 

The investigation began under former Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan in 2018 after a Pennsylvania grand jury found that 300 priests had abused 1,000 minors in the state. Several state attorneys around the country pledged to investigate the clergy in their states after the findings were revealed. 

The attorney general looked into Illinois’ six dioceses, Chicago, Belleville, Joliet, Peoria, Rockford, and Springfield. At the time that the investigation began, there were only 103 publicly listed child sex abusers within the clergy. However, the report found that there were 494 substantiated abuse within the dioceses.

The report names the child sex abusers and details the abuse they committed while they were serving the church, including sexual abuse and rape. It also details how several allegations were ignored when reported. The investigation found that while some of the clergy had only one victim, others had several dozens. 

Almost all of the 1,997 survivors of abuse struggled with mental health issues after the incidents, while others turned to alcoholism, addiction, or suffered from anxiety, the report found.

“Decades of Catholic leadership decisions and policies have allowed known child sex abusers to hide, often in plain sight,” Raoul added. “And because the statute of limitations has frequently expired, many survivors of child sex abuse at the hands of Catholic clerics will never see justice in a legal sense.”