ILLINOIS
Belleville News-Democrat
By DAVID CLOHESSY
Five years ago this month, a Belleville jury made a stunning decision. They awarded $5 million to Jim Wisniewski who was sexually assaulted by a Catholic priest for years.
And exactly 20 years ago, Belleville’s Catholic Diocese made national headlines as the first of 17 credibly accused child- molesting clerics was removed from ministry.
How have Belleville Catholic officials changed, if at all, in the years since these disturbing developments?
Stunningly little. And their response has largely mirrored the arc followed by the rest of the Catholic hierarchy: First, temporary period of improvement and grandiose promises (while the glare of media attention is intense) then a long period of quiet backpedalling (when public pressure subsides).
In 1993, like a row of dominoes, eight clerics were accused of child sexual abuse and suspended from active duty: the Revs. Jerome Ratermann, James Calhoun, Robert Vonnahmen, David Crook, Robert Chlopecki, Deacon Francis Theis, the Revs. Eugene Linnemann and Edwin Kastner.
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