Array
Some 2,000 Illinois children were sexually abused by Roman Catholic clergy between the 1950s and 2010s, the state attorney general said in a report released on Tuesday that also detailed how abuse was often tolerated and concealed by Church leaders.
The 696-page report, released by Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul, substantiated claims of abuse made against 451 Catholic clerics and religious brothers in the state’s six dioceses. At least 1,997 children were sexually abused over the past seven decades, the report said.
The report published for the first time the names of 149 clergy and religious brothers who it said had been the subject of credible allegations of sexual abuse.
It was initiated in 2018 by Raoul’s predecessor Lisa Madigan, who accused the Church of underreporting cases when it initially identified 103 abusers among its ranks.
