The Attorney General of Illinois released a bombshell report singling out the Catholic Church for sexual abuse of children.
The report says over 450 people with credible sexual abuse allegations served in the church as priests, long after they faced the initial allegations.
The church only publicly disclosed less than 20% of these accusations. To say there was serious neglect going on would be a giant understatement. To say they are legally liable would be accurate.
Since 1950, the report notes, almost 2,000 kids have been abused within a Catholic church in Illinois.
The report reveals an extra 150 names of priests who weren’t listed before. Investigators found this information as they looked further into accusations, thus contacting people who might have been abused within the church.
One new documented case was that of Father Thomas Kelly. He was revealed to have abused at least 15 boys in the 1960s and 70s. He was moved to another church, but served there as a priest until his death in 1990.
This is the third sweeping and damning state-wide report. Last year, investigations of the Catholic Churches in Maryland and Pennsylvania yielded similar results.
The Archbishop of Chicago tepidly defended his church saying his “church in Illinois has been at the forefront of dealing with sexual abuse of minors for many years.”
Notice the lack of taking any responsibility, or of making sure the victims felt heard and validated. All he said is that the church was dealing with this stuff and was trying its best. That statement probably won’t cut it to the thousands of victims.
Most of these cases fall beyond the statute of limitations, so this was mainly to single out the perpetrators and create some validation for the victims. But a handful of states have “lookback” laws, where, specifically in regards to religious sex abuse, the statute of limitations doesn’t apply.
The Illinois state legislature is toying with the idea of implementing that law in their books. Let’s hope they pull the trigger.
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