ROCKFORD (IL)
WREX TV
March 20, 2019
A scathing new report has been released naming nearly 400 former and current clergy members of the Illinois Catholic Diocese who have been accused of sexual abuse.
The 182-page report was published Wednesday by the Minnesota-based law firm Jeff Anderson and Associates, which has lead the charge and filed the lawsuit demanding the Diocese release a full list of people accused of sexual abuse while working under the diocese.
The 395 men named in that report worked in the Archdiocese of Chicago, Belleville, Joliet, Peoria, Springfield and Rockford. Twenty-two men with ties to the Diocese of Rockford are included in it.
Back in November, the Diocese of Rockford published a report that outlined the history of sexual abuse of minors in the diocese. It disclosed files and said that between 1950 and 2002, allegations of sexual abuse of a minor were substantiated against three priests. The total report included 15 names, something the diocese said Wednesday it stands by.
In a statement, the Rockford Diocese said it did not disclose allegations against many clergy on Anderson’s list “because the accusations either have not been substantiated or are completely without merit.”
Officials with the Rockford Diocese did say one name on Anderson’s list did not appear on their November 2018 report because they were unaware of the accusations. They say the Rev. Ivan Rovira committed sexual abuse after he left northern Illinois in the 1970s.
The Rockford Diocese also said in the statement, “Sexual misconduct by clergy, Church personnel, Church leaders and volunteers is contrary to Christian morals, doctrine and Canon Law. It is never acceptable and Bishop Davis J. Malloy has declared emphatically that ‘one case of abuse is one too many.’”
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