Many survivors of Catholic clergy abuse in Illinois start in the same place. They search for the name of the priest or brother who hurt them. In 2023, the Illinois Attorney General made that search possible on a statewide scale. Knowing how to read what you find, and what to do if you find nothing, can matter a great deal.
The report is at clergyreport.illinoisattorneygeneral.gov. It has a search function and a section for each diocese. It names 451 Catholic clerics and religious brothers as substantiated child sex abusers across all six Illinois dioceses, who abused at least 1,997 children. Its data analysis tracks those abusers year by year from 1950 through 2019.
Whatever the report shows, you do not need to have reported the abuse, and nobody needs to have been charged. A civil claim asks what a diocese or religious order knew, what it should have known, and what it did. Attorney Ervin Nevitt, a partner at Coplan + Crane (Illinois bar registration 6319808, admitted 2014), reviews these cases.
How the investigation came about
The Attorney General's investigation began in the second half of 2018. It covered the Archdiocese of Chicago and the Dioceses of Belleville, Joliet, Peoria, Rockford, and Springfield. Investigators reviewed more than 100,000 pages of diocesan documents.
When the investigation opened, only Chicago and Joliet posted any list of substantiated abusers. Between them, those lists named 103 men.
The numbers, diocese by diocese
The report counts substantiated abusers by the diocese where they ministered and compares that with each diocese's own list at the close of the investigation.
The Archdiocese of Chicago, covering Cook and Lake counties, had 275 men named in the report. Its own list held 150. The Diocese of Joliet had 69 in the report against 52 on its list. Peoria had 51 against 43. Belleville had 43 against 42. Springfield had 32 against 23. Rockford had 24 in the report and 24 on its list.
Why the totals do not match
Add those diocese figures together and you get 494. The statewide total is 451. The gap is not an error. Some men ministered in more than one diocese, so they appear in more than one count.
The 160 men the dioceses had not disclosed
One of the report's most significant findings concerns men who were left off diocesan lists. The report names 160 clerics and religious brothers who had been substantiated as abusers by Catholic sources but whom the dioceses still had not disclosed. If a diocese's own list does not include the man who abused you, the Attorney General's list is the next place to look.
What each entry tells you
Each entry lists the man's Illinois assignments, the number of reported survivors, the dates and places of reported abuse, and the date the diocese says it first received a claim about him.
That last date is often the most important line in the entry. If it falls before your abuse, the diocese had a complaint on file while he still had access to you. That is the heart of a negligent retention claim, which is the theory that most often carries clergy cases. In practice, several theories run together, and which fits depends on your facts.
The pattern the report reveals is transfer rather than removal. A priest was moved to another parish after a complaint, and the complaint itself was recorded in an assignment history that still exists.
If he is not in the report
His absence does not mean you will not be believed. The report counts only men substantiated by the time it was published.
Members of religious orders are a common gap. Not every Catholic priest or brother answers to a bishop. Jesuits, Oblates, and members of other orders often work in order-run schools, hospitals, and orphanages, as well as parishes. The Attorney General identified more than 250 religious order clerics and brothers as substantiated child sex abusers, from more than 30 orders ministering in Illinois.
Diocesan representatives told investigators that order members are not their men, and dioceses generally refer allegations against order members to the order. A complaint made straight to the order may never reach the diocese. The Archdiocese of Chicago acknowledged nearly 60 order members with substantiated allegations who served within it, but left them off its public list because they had no diocesan ministry or were non-ordained brothers.
If the abuse happened at a school run by an order, the order kept his file and decided where he went next. The diocese may hold records as well. Survivors of order members often report to the diocese where the abuse happened, and church law gives the bishop authority to watch over Catholic schools in his territory, including those run by orders. A claim can involve the order, the diocese, or both.
If the abuse was not in a Catholic church
The Attorney General's report covers only the six Catholic dioceses. A survivor abused in a Protestant or Orthodox church, a synagogue, a mosque, a Jehovah's Witness congregation, or another faith community will not find the abuser in it. Records still exist with the congregation, its regional or national body, and any youth program, camp, or school the faith runs.
Every member of the clergy in Illinois is a mandated reporter under Section 4 of the Abused and Neglected Child Reporting Act (325 ILCS 5/4). Clergy must report immediately to the Department of Children and Family Services when they have reasonable cause to believe a child known to them in that role may be abused. Whether that happened, and what leaders did instead, is often central in a case against a non-Catholic institution.
Who can be named depends on how the faith is structured. In a self-governing congregation, the local church or its board may be the only institution involved. Where a regional body ordains, places, or disciplines clergy, that body may hold the personnel history.
From the public report to the church's own files
The report is a starting point. Once a lawsuit is filed, Illinois Supreme Court Rule 214 lets a party serve written requests for specified documents. The responding party must identify everything responsive it holds, produce it as kept in the usual course of business or organized by the categories requested, and sign an affidavit stating whether the production is complete.
Those requests usually reach assignment histories, personnel files, personnel board and review board records, and parish and school records such as rosters, server schedules, and trip records. In Belleville, personnel board minutes from 1985 read, "In making assignments, must not forget about Fr. Kownacki," more than a decade after the diocese learned he abused children. At the trial of a survivor's lawsuit, the diocese's vice-chancellor testified that when the priest was transferred to a new parish in 1982, it was common knowledge among diocesan leaders that he abused children.
Churches have resisted. The report describes the Diocese of Rockford refusing to give a priest's personnel file to Kane County prosecutors, and the Illinois appellate court holding that internal church rules could not shield evidence of child sexual abuse by priests from discovery. Illinois does keep a clergy privilege (735 ILCS 5/8-803), but it is written around confessions and admissions made to a cleric acting as a spiritual advisor, and the court decides whether a document falls within it.
These claims are usually brought against a diocese or religious order, not only the individual. The responsible body is usually private, so the Tort Immunity rules for Illinois public bodies do not apply in the same way.
You do not need any records before you speak with a lawyer. Your memory of names, places, and dates is enough to start, and many survivors file anonymously in Illinois. Timing depends on the facts and should be checked with a lawyer.
Common Questions Around the Attorney General's Report
Do I need to have reported it? No. A civil claim requires no police report, no charge, and no conviction. Most people we speak with never reported.
Does someone have to have been convicted? No. A civil case uses a lower standard of proof than a criminal one and is usually brought against the institution.
It was a long time ago. That is the norm in this work. Your age at the time, who was responsible, and the particular facts govern it.
He was a religious brother at a Catholic high school. Who is responsible? Often the order that ran the school and assigned him, and sometimes the diocese too. His absence from a diocese's list tells you little.
The abuse happened in a non-Catholic church. Does this apply? The report does not, but the rest does. Clergy of every faith are mandated reporters, and a congregation in a civil case must produce relevant records under the same court rules as a diocese.
What happens when you contact us
A question sets nothing in motion. You speak with a person, not a form, and you do not have to describe what happened. We look into which institution was responsible, what it knew, what records exist, and whether a claim can still be brought, at no cost to you.
We tell you plainly what is possible. If you decide not to go ahead, that is the end of it, and what you told us stays confidential. If you go ahead, we carry the filings, deadlines, records, and the institution's insurers. Steps can be taken to protect your identity in the court record.
To learn more, visit: https://survivorsofabuseil.com/clergy-sexual-abuse-lawyer-il/
