ST. PAUL (MN)
Pioneer Press
January 21, 2019
By Rick Kambic
The weeklong retreat that brought hundreds of U.S.-based Roman Catholic bishops to Mundelein Seminary earlier this month was flagged by the FBI as an event worthy of resources despite a government shutdown, according to a recent report from police.
Approximately 280 cardinals and bishops, plus more than 100 assistants and two representatives from the Vatican were at the seminary between Jan. 2 and Jan. 7, Mundelein Police Chief Eric Guenther said during a Jan. 14 Village Board meeting.
A campus-wide phone outage was the only issue of note, as Guenther said no arrests were made and no threats or acts of vandalism were investigated.
“It was very well run, very smooth, the archdiocese couldn’t have been nicer or more complimentary of how we handled it,” Guenther said during his report.
The FBI issued a level five special event assessment rating for the retreat, according to Guenther.
“It is the lowest level that can be given, but (the event) rose to the point of the (federal) government saying this is a legitimized event that needs to be managed and overseen,” Guenther said.
Pope Francis called for the Mundelein retreat in October after a grand jury report in August documented bishops and other church leaders in Pennsylvania covering up the sexual abuse of children by hundreds of priests and other clergy over roughly seven decades.
Then in December, a report from Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan said accusations have been leveled against 690 Illinois priests, while Catholic officials have publicly identified only 185 clergy with credible allegations against them.
Although the report says that “clergy sexual abuse of minors in Illinois is significantly more extensive than the Illinois dioceses previously reported,” it does not estimate how many of the allegations, some of which are decades-old, should have been deemed credible.
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