When Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul’s office opened its investigation into Illinois’ Catholic dioceses in 2018, the church publicly listed 103 substantiated child sex abusers.
On Tuesday, the attorney general released a report saying that number is now much larger: Raoul said 451 Catholic clerics and officials are have been disclosed for abusing 1,997 children across all of the dioceses in Illinois since 1950.
State officials said the nearly 700-page report was based on “detailed, narrative accounts of child sex abuse committed by Catholic clerics,” many of which were written with participation from the survivors and are told from their point of view.
“I was raised and confirmed in the Catholic church and sent my children to Catholic schools. I believe the church does important work to support vulnerable populations; however, as with any presumably reputable institution, the Catholic church must be held accountable when it betrays the public’s trust,” Raoul said in the press release.
Raoul said the report sheds light on the Catholic clerics who “violated their positions of power and trust.” The attorney general acknowledged that they might not be held accountable in a court of law. Instead, Raoul said he hopes that by naming them in the report, there will be a “public accounting,” as well as healing for survivors “who have long suffered in silence.”
Investigators said they reviewed over 100,000 pages of documents held by the Illinois dioceses and were able to confidentially contact over 600 survivors through emails, letters, interviews and phone calls.
In a statement from Cardinal Blase Cupich, the Archbishop of Chicago, he claimed that all 451 clergy members named in the report were all reported to civil authorities. Cupich denied that they were undisclosed.
The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) released its own statement, in which officials said they were grateful to the Attorney General's Office:
"For many survivors, secular investigations like this will open an area for new conversations, healing among fellow victims, and assisting communities to comprehend the horrors of their past and the risk of their present. When the legal system fails to provide victims with justice, statewide investigations can assist citizens and survivors in communicating essential facts about the global scourge of child sexual abuse."
Attorney General officials said the narratives from survivors served as evidence that the church failed to support survivors and ignored or covered up reports of abuse. They added that survivors were revictimized by the church when they came forward with reports of abuse.
“Repeatedly, church officials prioritized the reputation of the institution over protecting children,” frequently giving abusive priests the benefit of the doubt — giving abusers the chance to abuse again — and even covering up the abuse by misleading the public,” officials wrote.
The report is organized into five sections, including specific recommendations from the Attorney General’s Office on how to handle future child sex abuse allegations.
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