Catholic Church in Illinois 'covered up 500 cases of sexual abuse of minors'

The preliminary findings have found the church's six archdioceses have done a woefully inadequate job of investigating allegations. Photo / File / 123RF

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan on Wednesday issued a blistering report about clergy sexual abuse, saying that Catholic dioceses in Illinois received allegations of child sexual abuse by 500 more clergy than previously publicly identified.

The preliminary findings have found the church's six archdioceses have done a woefully inadequate job of investigating allegations and in some cases did not investigate them at all or notify the state's child welfare agency.

In all, Madigan's office said that while the dioceses have added 45 names to the lists of those who have been credibly accused over the past four months, the fact that the total is now only 185 raises serious questions about the church's response to the crisis.

"By choosing not to thoroughly investigate allegations, the Catholic Church has failed in its moral obligation to provide survivors, parishioners and the public a complete and accurate accounting of all sexually inappropriate behavior involving priests in Illinois," Madigan said in a statement.

"The failure to investigate also means that the Catholic Church has never made an effort to determine whether the conduct of the accused priests was ignored or covered up by superiors."

Madigan's office said the problems went beyond a lack of effort. In some cases, the report found, efforts were made to work against the accusers.

"When the Illinois Dioceses investigated an allegation, they frequently found reasons not to deem an allegation 'credible' or 'substantiated,"' according to the report. Not only did Madigan's office find a "pattern" of dioceses failing to substantiate allegations that came from one person, "The dioceses also often found reasons to discredit survivors' stories of abuse by focusing on the survivors' personal lives."

Church leaders at dioceses in Illinois expressed regret about the abuse, but pointed to steps they have taken to address what has become an international crisis.

In a statement, the Diocese of Joliet said it took steps such as establishing in 1993 a review committee made up of people from law enforcement, social service agencies and others to investigate allegations of sexual abuse.

Chicago's archbishop, Cardinal Blase J. Cupich, in a statement said that although he regretted "our failures to address the scourge of clerical sexual abuse," the archdiocese has been a leader in dealing with the issue, including a policy since 2002 of reporting "all allegations of child sexual abuse to civil authorities."

Madigan said her office's findings make it clear that notifying authorities is critical, and pointing to instances when dioceses used personal information about people to discredit them and help them conclude accusations weren't credible.

"The preliminary stages of this investigation have already demonstrated that the Catholic Church cannot police itself," she said.

Church officials did express some frustration about the fact that the report does not point to specific examples of problems, saying that they have not been told how many of the 500 allegations of abuse are from their dioceses.

Madigan's office acknowledged that the report does not have some key details, including when the allegations were made and which dioceses they were made in.

A spokeswoman said that the allegations date back decades and include priests who are now deceased.

- AP