The church has been embroiled in child sex abuse scandals for more than two decades that encompass hundreds of thousands of victims around the globe, from Australia to Chile.
The Illinois findings are the latest from several major US investigations in recent years showing that such abuse and church officials’ cover-ups were widespread, making the case that the clergy is incapable of bringing perpetrators among their own ranks to account. Though much of this abuse was initially dismissed by church leaders, mounting evidence — that now includes the Illinois investigation — has made victims impossible to ignore.
A 696-page report from the state attorney general’s office found a total of 494 abusers across Illinois’s six Catholic dioceses, many of whom were knowingly and routinely transferred between parishes while church officials remained silent. The report says that the investigation prompted the dioceses to publicly list 231 substantiated child sex abusers in addition to those it had already disclosed and that state officials uncovered another 149 who were never identified by the dioceses.
The report relies on interviews, hotline messages, emails, and letters from more than 600 confidential sources, many of whom described experiencing long-term consequences resulting from the abuse, including mental health issues, addiction, and suicidal ideation.
Cardinal Blase J. Cupich, archbishop of Chicago, said in a video statement, “On behalf of the archdiocese, I apologize to all who have been harmed by the failure to prevent and properly respond to child sexual abuse by clerics. Survivors will forever be in our prayers, and we have devoted ourselves to rooting out this problem and providing healing to victims.”
David Clohessy, former national director of Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP), said the report was an important step forward that made dozens of recommendations to bishops on commonsense measures they can take to prevent further abuse, but argued there is “little if any sign that they care enough to make those improvements.”
Those recommendations include ensuring investigators have no role in providing survivor support, that the dioceses provide guides on how to report and make it easy to do so anonymously, and that all forms of retaliation, intimidation, coercion, or adverse action be explicitly prohibited.
Clohessy noted that the report made no announcement of criminal charges against any Catholic officials who covered up child sex abuse or recommendations for additional legislative remedies, which could include strengthening RICO statutes — criminal laws aimed at combating organized crime — under which they could be held accountable.
“That is where we believe real change happens,” Clohessy said. “There have been precious few charges against anybody who ignored or concealed. It’s very frustrating to see law enforcement officials say there were thousands of crimes, hundreds of predators, hundreds of enablers — but no one gets charged.”
Under current Illinois law, clergy and other church staff, including voluntary child care workers, are already required to report suspected child abuse as “mandatory reporters.” The state also removed the statute of limitations for prosecuting child sexual abuse in 2017. But there are other states where clergy are not mandatory reporters and that impose a statute of limitations on such claims.