Over 450 Catholic clergy sexually abused nearly 2,000 children in Illinois

More than 450 Catholic clergy in Illinois have sexually abused nearly 2,000 children since 1950, the state's attorney general has found in an investigation, revealing that the problem was far worse than the church had let on.

Attorney General Kwame Raoul said at a news conference on Tuesday that investigators found that 451 Catholic clergy abused 1,997 children in Illinois between 1950 and 2019, though he acknowledged that the statute of limitations has expired in many cases and that those abusers "will never see justice in a legal sense."

"It is my hope that this report will shine light both on those who violated their positions of power and trust to abuse innocent children, and on the men in church leadership who covered up that abuse," Raoul said, crediting the accusers for making the review possible.

"These perpetrators may never be held accountable in a court of law, but by naming them here, the intention is to provide a public accountability and a measure of healing to survivors who have long suffered in silence."

The review began in 2018 under Raoul's predecessor, Lisa Madigan, who released a blistering report as she prepared to leave office.

Raoul continued the investigation, and he said on Tuesday that 25 staff members reviewed more than 100,000 pages of diocesan documents and engaged in more than 600 confidential interactions with contacts.

Much of the report is dedicated to individual accounts of sexual abuse and lists of clergy and religious brothers in each diocese accused of child sexual abuse.

Some of those named have become infamous due to criminal proceedings or lawsuits, including Father Daniel McCormack, who was the subject of more than 100 abuse claims in the decades before his 2006 arrest for abusing five boys in Chicago.

He later pleaded guilty and was sentenced to five years in prison.

Even after McCormack's first arrest in 2005 for sexual abuse, the Chicago archdiocese did not remove him from the ministry since those charges were dropped for lack of evidence, the report says.

'Stunning' report

In a statement released on Tuesday, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests called the report "stunning" but emphasised that the numbers of victims and abusers cited by Raoul are likely undercounted.

The group also called on state and local officials to conduct similar reviews.

"There is no questioning the facts of the report — until 2018, when the investigation began, hierarchs in every Illinois diocese kept known abusers under wraps, declined to include them on their accused lists, and refused to acknowledge the truth that survivors of abuse who came forward to make a report shared with them," the group said.

Similar government-led investigations detailing reports of clergy sexual abuse and church leaders' failure to hold perpetrators accountable have rocked archdioceses in other states, including Pennsylvania and Maryland.

The Catholic Conference of Illinois says 3.5 million Catholics make up approximately 27 percent of Illinois' total population, and that the Church maintains 949 parishes and has 2,215 priests, 1,372 deacons, and 260 religious brothers.

Accusers and activists for years have complained that abusers belonging to orders have often been able to avoid the scrutiny other clergy received because of their semi-autonomy from archdioceses.

The new report, however, officially names some former clergy tied to such orders.

The state investigation was kicked off following a separate grand jury probe in the state of Pennsylvania that found over 300 Catholic clerics had abused more than 1,000 children during the past seven decades.