Illinois Attorney General Says Catholic Church Withheld Names of at Least 500 Accused Priests

By Laurie Goodstein and Monica Davey
Dec. 19, 2018

A scathing report by the Illinois attorney general accused the Roman Catholic Church in the state of failing the victims of clergy sexual abuse by neglecting to investigate their allegations against priests and finding flimsy reasons to dismiss their claims.

The names of more than 500 priests who were accused of sexual abuse did not show up on lists of credibly accused clergy that have been released by the Illinois Catholic dioceses, according to the preliminary report from Attorney General Lisa Madigan.

The report concludes that the Catholic dioceses in Illinois are incapable of investigating themselves and “will not resolve the clergy sexual abuse crisis on their own.”

Cardinal Blase J. Cupich, the archbishop of Chicago, said in a statement, “I want to express again the profound regret of the whole church for our failures to address the scourge of clerical sexual abuse.

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