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CHICAGO \u2013 Nearly 400 Catholic clergy members in Illinois have been accused of sexual misconduct,\u00a0but church officials have only informed congregants of a fraction of those who have faced allegations, according to attorneys who represented clergy sex abuse victims across the USA.<\/p>\n
A 182-page report<\/a>, published Wednesday by the Minnesota-based law firm Jeff Anderson and Associates, includes the names, background information, photos and assignment histories of each accused clergy member.<\/p>\n \u201cThe danger of sexual abuse in Illinois is clearly a problem of today, not just the past,\u201d the report concludes. \u201cThis will continue to be a danger until the identities and histories of sexually abusive clerics, religious employees and seminarians are made public.\u201d<\/p>\n Anderson said he hopes the report will push church leaders to publicly identify hundreds more clergy who faced allegations.<\/p>\n The men named in the report worked in the Archdiocese of Chicago and the dioceses of Belleville, Joliet, Peoria, Rockford and Springfield. Dioceses’ officials pushed back on\u00a0the report’s findings.<\/p>\n The Archdiocese of Chicago, which serves about 2.1 million Catholics, said it\u00a0“does not “police itself.”<\/p>\n “It reports all allegations to the civil authorities, regardless of the date of the alleged abuse, whether the priest is a diocesan priest or religious order priest, and whether the priest is alive or dead,” the archdiocese said in a statement.<\/p>\n Andrew Hansen, a spokesman for the Springfield Diocese, dismissed the report as “an impressive professional marketing brochure.”<\/p>\n He noted one of the priests listed in the report, Rev. Frank Martinez, had spent about six weeks in 1985 working as a hospital chaplain in the central Illinois diocese\u00a0before resigning his position.<\/p>\n The following year Martinez, who was assigned to a parish in Buffalo, Iowa,\u00a0was accused of propositioning a 15-year-old boy in an Iowa motel room. Martinez was removed from the ministry in 2004. In 2008, he was\u00a0included on a list by the Davenport Diocese of 24 priests credibly accused of sexual abuse.<\/p>\n “(The report) does not represent, as Mr. Anderson suggests, a thorough and diligent review of the publicly available facts, and it is highly misleading and irresponsible,” Hansen said.<\/p>\n The Rockford Diocese said in a statement it has not disclosed allegations against\u00a0many of the clergy on Anderson’s list “because the accusations either have not been substantiated or are completely without merit.”Joliet Diocese officials also said that allegations against some named on Anderson’s list have not been substantiated.<\/p>\n “The list includes a number of priests, living and deceased who, at one time or another provided some ministry within the Diocese of Joliet at some point during their priesthood, but are not priests of the Diocese of Joliet,” the Joliet Diocese said in a statement.<\/p>\n Rockford Diocese officials said they were\u00a0unaware that one former\u00a0priest named on the list, Rev. Ivan Rovira, had been found\u00a0to have committed sexual abuse of a child after he left Northern Illinois in the early 1970s. The Brownsville, Texas Diocese earlier this year placed\u00a0Rovira on its list of “clergy with credible allegation of sexual abuse of a minor.\u201d<\/p>\n Rovira admitted to Brownsville Diocese officials in 2002 that he had sexually abused a boy during his time working in Texas. He was forced to leave the ministry, and later fled to Mexico, according to the Anderson report.<\/p>\n “Every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of this list, and the list covers the time frame of 1908, when this diocese was established, to the present,” the Rockford Diocese said in its statement. “An allegation against a priest who had an assignment in this diocese but belongs to a religious order or other diocese is referred to the religious order or other diocese to which the priest belongs and is under its jurisdiction.”<\/p>\n Keep the faith?:\u00a0<\/strong>Sex abuse scandals prompt more to personally question ties to Church, poll finds<\/a><\/p>\n Pope weighs in:\u00a0<\/strong>Francis vows to address scandal, says priests must be guided by ‘holy fear of God’<\/a><\/p>\n Attorneys culled the names of\u00a0the clergy named in the report from legal settlements and news reports detailing\u00a0claims of\u00a0child sexual abuse. Although lawsuits were filed involving many of the alleged perpetrators, the majority of the claims against the individuals were settled, according to the report.<\/p>\n “We’ve chosen to reveal this information, because the Catholic bishops and religious orders who are in charge and have this information . . . have chosen to conceal it,” Anderson said.<\/p>\n The six Catholic dioceses of Illinois released the names of 185\u00a0clergy members who church officials determined were credibly accused of sexual abuse. The Anderson list includes those who were identified by the Illinois dioceses and more than 200 additional priests and deacons.<\/p>\n Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, who left office in January,\u00a0issued a preliminary report in December<\/a>\u00a0that found there are at least 500 clergy from\u00a0Illinois\u2019 dioceses who have faced\u00a0allegations of abuse. The church has\u00a0not publicly acknowledged or thoroughly investigated those claims, Madigan’s report found. She did not name those accused of misconduct.<\/p>\n Madigan launched her investigation in August after a landmark Pennsylvania grand jury report detailed claims against more than\u00a0300 \u201cpredator priests\u201d\u00a0<\/a>who had abused at least 1,000 victims over roughly six decades. The former Illinois\u00a0attorney general said her office was flooded with hundreds of emails and calls from people alleging they were victims of abuse by clergy in Illinois in the aftermath of the Pennsylvania report.<\/p>\n Clergy abuse investigation:\u00a0<\/strong>Illinois Catholic Church allegedly failed to investigate 500 priest sex abuse allegations<\/a><\/p>\n Predator priests:\u00a0<\/strong>States ask for assistance to pursue Catholic Church for documents on abuse by priests, Pennsylvania attorney general says<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n