ILLINOIS
Waiting for Godot to Leave
Kevin O’Brien
Across the river from where I live, the neighboring diocese of Belleville, Illinois is a trend-setter. They led the way with the sex abuse scandal in the Church long before the story broke nationally.
NCR reports about Fr. Kownacki, a diocesan priest from the Belleville diocese …
* In 1973, a 16-year-old girl, Gina Parks, contacted diocesan officials and claimed Kownacki, during a two-year period while he was pastor of a small parish in St. Francisville and later in a parish to which he was transferred in Washington Park, abused her sexually, had intercourse with her, even attempted to cause an abortion when she became pregnant. … Parks said Kownacki gave her alcohol, promised to help her get into art school and assured her sex was OK because God “wanted people to love each other.”
The bishop, knowing this, and knowing that Fr. Kownacki had molested a girl from Guatemala and that “twin boys from Guatemala were living in the Washington Park rectory and also involved sexually with Kownacki” transfers him to St. Theresa parish in Salem, and writes to the parishioners at St. Theresa’s of Kownacki’s “knowledge, piety, prudence, experience and general character”.
* The diocese gathers evidence that while Kownacki is at St. Theresa’s, he molests several boys, including an altar server who would later be awarded $5 million in compensation and punitive damages.
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