ILLINOIS (WAND) – Dioceses across Illinois are underreporting sexual abuse in the Catholic church, according to a report from Attorney General Lisa Madigan.
The report, which can be viewed online here, says the Archdiocese of Chicago and dioceses in Springfield, Peoria, Belleville, Joliet and Rockford failed to be thorough enough in investigating accusations of abuse in the church. Madigan says a review of diocese documents revealed that while church leaders made 185 “credibly” accused clergy names public, there are 500 or more other allegations those organizations have heard that are not public.
The report says dioceses often did not investigate accusations, usually because the clergy member accused had died or resigned when the allegation was first reported to the church. Madigan says her officer found “dozens of examples” in which dioceses “failed to adequately investigate”, and further found church leaders only saw 26 percent of abuse allegations as credible.
“In the Office’s review of clergy files, a pattern emerged where the dioceses frequently failed to ‘substantiate’ an allegation when it came from only one survivor, even when the dioceses had reason to believe that survivor and reason to investigate further,” the report said. “The dioceses also often found reasons to discredit survivors’ stories of abuse by focusing on the survivors’ personal lives.”
She says the church often would not tell law enforcement or the Department of Children and Human Services about accusations of clergy sexual abuse, and added that dioceses need to become more transparent in the future.
The report ends with a note that the Catholic Church “has the ability and moral responsibility” to offer help to survivors and “take swift action” against clergy members accused of abuse.
A full statement from the Springfield diocese was released on Wednesday evening and can be viewed here. Bishop Thomas John Paprocki issued a response to the report.
“Reviewing these past cases has also reminded us that many years ago people didn’t publicly discuss the kind of salacious allegations documented in these files,” Paprocki said. “A virtuous intent to protect the faithful from scandal unfortunately prevented the transparency and awareness that has helped us confront this problem more directly over the past fifteen years. We are continuing to learn and strive to improve our assistance for those who are victims and survivors of child sexual abuse.”
People can also visit this link or this link for respective statements from the Joliet and Peoria dioceses. The Archdiocese of Chicago issued a statement here.
