Almost 2,000 Minors Abused By Catholic Church in Illinois

What's the story?

• A 696-page report by the attorney general of Illinois has described over 1,900 cases of sexual abuse and has uncovered 450 credibly accused sexual abusers in their probe into the Catholic Church.
• The Illinois report was initiated by former attorney general Lisa Madigan, who noticed a discrepancy between what the church was disclosing and the sheer volume of accusations.

What did the investigation find?

• These 450 abusers have ministered in the Catholic Church in Illinois over nearly seven decades.
• This number is four times higher than what the Catholic Church publicly disclosed in 2018 when the state began its investigation. Prior to the analysis, the church had only identified 103 individual abusers.
• The report found that since 1950, clergy members and lay religious brothers had abused at least 1,997 children across the state's six dioceses, including the Archdiocese of Chicago.
• The report adds 149 people to the list of child sex abusers the dioceses had publicly identified before or during the investigation. None are believed to be currently working, and at least 330 are believed to be deceased.
• Mike McDonnell, a spokesman for SNAP, an advocacy group for victims of clerical sexual abuse, said:

"This report clearly tells us that no one knew more about abuse, and no one did less about it, than these dioceses themselves."

What is next for the victims?

• Because many of the accused are deceased, and the statute of limitations has expired in some cases, victims have little legal recourse.
• Some states like California and New York have enacted "look-back windows" which allow child sex abuse victims to bring civil claims against perpetrators otherwise protected by a statute of limitations. Illinois has not implemented this window.
• Current Illinois attorney general Kwame Raoul said the report was designed to provide "public accountability and a measure of healing to survivors who have long suffered in silence."
• In a statement to CNN, the Diocese of Rockford apologized for "the pain endured by victim-survivors of childhood sexual abuse."

Should more states undertake their own investigations?

—Emma Kansiz 

(Photo Credit: Flickr/Randy Von Liski)