EDWARDSVILLE (IL)
Edwardsville Intelligencer [Edwardsville IL]
May 26, 2023
By Penny Weaver
Four priests with substantiated child sexual abuse allegations against them served in Catholic churches in Edwardsville between 1954 and 1980, according to a report issued Tuesday by the Illinois attorney general.
One priest listed among clergy who abused children served in Maryville from 1982-84.
Of those five, sexual abuse of children is reported to have occurred in Edwardsville and Maryville parishes by at least three of them.
State Attorney General Kwame Raoul announced Tuesday that a four-and-a-half-year investigation found 1,997 children were abused by 451 Catholic clergy in Illinois between 1950 and 2019.
In the Diocese of Springfield Illinois, which includes Madison County, 32 clergy members were identified as having sexually abused children, according to the attorney general’s 700-page report.
In Edwardsville and Maryville, revelations in the investigation include the following priests named in the report.
- George Faller, Saint Boniface Catholic Church, 1954-61
- Robert Dodd, SIUE Newman Catholic Community, 1968
- Garrett Neal Dee, Saint Boniface, 1973-76
- Walter Weerts, Saint Thomas, Edwardsville, 1964-68; Saint Boniface, 1979-80
- Alvin Campbell, Mother of Perpetual Help in Maryville, 1982-84
Two of the five are listed as not having reports of child abuse against them while they served locally.
Given the years that priests who sexually abused children were assigned to Edwardsville’s Saint Boniface, the parish was served by a clergyman who at some point preyed on children for a total 13 out of 26 years from 1954 to 1980.
Of the Diocese of Springfield, the attorney general’s report issues a scathing narrative.
“The Diocese of Springfield’s handling of child sex abuse allegations is a story of failed leadership — leadership that allowed clerics to sexually abuse children in the diocese for decades,” the report states. “Through it all, men leading the Diocese of Springfield for 50 years chose to protect the reputation of the church and its clerics, rather than attempt to ensure the physical and mental well-being of its children.”
Bishops of the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois
- William A. O’Connor, 1949-1975
- Joseph A. McNicholas, 1975 to 1983
- Daniel L. Ryan, 1984 to 1999
- George J. Lucas, 1999-2009
- Thomas John Paprocki, 2010-present
O’Connor, McNicholas and Ryan all are mentioned in the report. Ryan himself is a child sexual predator listed with five survivors. He died in 2015.
The following information is directly from the state attorney general’s report.
George Faller
Survivors: 3
Area assignments included:
- 1918-19 at Saint Paul in Highland
- 1919 at Saint Simon and Jude in Gillespie
- 1919-22 at Saint Mary in Alton
- 1922-24 at Saint Anseim in Kampsville
- 1954-61 at Saint Boniface in Edwardsville
- 1961-69 at Saint Joseph in Benld
Father Faller is reported to have abused children sometime during 1954-56 at Saint Boniface in Edwardsville.
The Springfield Diocese stated that it first received a report about Faller in 1985; he was placed on their public lists of abusive priests on Nov. 29, 2018.
He retired in 1969. He died in 1975.
No further information about Faller is provided in the state attorney general’s report.
Robert Dodd
Survivors: 2
Area assignments included:
- 1964-68 at Saint Paul in Highland
- 1968 at SIUE Newman Catholic Community in Edwardsville
Father Dodd is reported to have sexually abused children over more than a decade. The attorney general’s report lists the abuse as occurring between 1960 and 1971 at Saint Paul parish in Highland.
The Springfield Diocese said it first received a report of criminal behavior by Dodd in 1968. He was placed on the Catholic church public lists of abusers on Nov. 29, 2018.
From 1970 to 2004, Dodd was listed as absent on leave. He was removed from the ministry in 2004 and laicized (removed from status as clergy) in 2013.
He died in 2018.
No further information about Faller is provided in the state attorney general’s report.
Garrett Neal Dee
Survivors: 4
Area assignments included:
- 1968-71 at Immaculate Conception in Alton
- 1968 with Dominican Sisters at Bethalto
- 1973-76 at Saint Boniface, Edwardsville
- 1980-81 at Saint Elizabeth in Marine
The attorney general’s report states that Father Dee abused children during the following years and at these locations:
- 1964-1967: Blessed Sacrament, Springfield
- 1971: Holy Family, Decatur
- 1978: Church of the Little Flower, Springfield
- 1981-1987: Visitation, Illiopolis
The Springfield Diocese says it received a first report of abuse by Dee in 2002. He was placed on the Catholic church public lists of abusers on Nov. 29, 2018.
From 1987-88, Dee was absent on leave. He was assigned outside the diocese from 1988 to 2003. He retired from active ministry in 2002.
No further information about Dee is provided in the state attorney general’s report.
Walter Weerts
Survivors: 22
Area assignments included:
- 1955 at Catholic Children’s Home in Alton
- 1957 at Camp Pere Marquette in Grafton
- 1961-63 at Saint Ambrose in Godfrey
- 1963-67 at Sacred Heart in Granite City
- 1972 at Saint Paul in Highland
- 1979-80 at Saint Boniface in Edwardsville
The attorney general’s report states that Father Weerts abused children during the following years and at these locations:
- 1964-68: Saint Thomas, Edwardsville
- 1964-70: Collinsville
- 1967-68: Granite City
- 1970s: Saint Paul, Highland
- 1975-76: Sacred Heart, Villa Grove
- 1978-81: Saint Thomas, Decatur
- 1978-82: Unknown
- Unknown: St. Louis, MO
- Unknown: Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Tennessee
The Springfield Diocese says it received a first report of abuse by Father Weerts in 1978, the attorney general’s report states; the report also says the diocese said it did not receive reports that Weerts may have been sexually abusing children until 1985.
He was placed on the Catholic church public lists of abusers on Nov. 29, 2018.
Other actions/status reports on Weerts are:
- 1978: Resigned from Sacred Heart, Villa Grove, Saint Michael, Hume, and Saint Thomas, Brocton
- 1985: Resigned from Saint Brigid, Liberty, and Saint Thomas, Camp Point; granted leave of absence for “health reasons”
- 1986: Pleaded guilty in Illinois to sexually abusing three boys; sentenced to six years in prison.
- 1989: Removed from ministry by request
- 1989: Laicized
Father Weerts was stationed at St. Boniface Catholic Church, 110 N. Buchanan St., from 1979-80.
Prior to that, from 1961 to 1978, he was assigned to eight different parishes by Bishop O’Connor; those include Catholic congregations in Godfrey, Alton, Granite City, Highland and Brocton.
The diocese told state investigators that it did not receive reports that Weerts may have been sexually abusing children until 1985.
“The diocese’s own files prove otherwise,” the attorney general’s report states.
The state alleges that reports of Weerts’ inappropriate conduct with children came to O’Connor’s attention in 1962.
Weerts was assigned to Saint Ambrose parish in Godfrey that year, and Father Frank Westhoff, who also is a substantiated child sex abuser listed in the state report, told O’Connor that “Weerts was engaging in inappropriate activities with young boys,” the attorney general’s report states.
Years later, Westhoff told diocesan officials about a 1962 meeting he had with O’Connor. The diocese recorded the statements by Westhoff in an internal 2003 memo.
The priest said he was “approached by parents who told him their son was doing strange things with Father Weerts, namely, wrestling. Westhoff said that was not strange but they replied that it happened in the nude,” the state report notes.
According to what Westhoff told the diocese, eight other families came forward at that time with similar complaints, so he initiated a meeting with O’Connor and took a list of children who might be at risk.
But Westhoff told the diocese that when he “told the Bishop about Father Weerts, the Bishop replied that Father Westhoff was just engaging in self-aggrandizement at the expense of the reputation of another priest. The Bishop simply refused to accept the list of names Father Westhoff had prepared and told him to take it home,” the state report said.
After that warning by Westhoff that he said O’Connor dismissed in 1962, there were 22 children reported as abused by Weerts over the next 24 years.
The attorney general’s report found that the Springfield diocese was warned again in 1978 about inappropriate behavior by Weerts.
Parents of a boy in the Sacred Heart parish in Villa Grove, where Weerts was assigned at that time, requested a meeting with Bishop McNicholas because they were considering filing criminal charges against Weerts for taking “indecent liberties” with their young son.
“Please don’t feel that we are making these accusations without much soul searching,” the boy’s parents wrote the bishop. “We are concerned not only with [Weerts’s] mental health, but also with his future moral character. We will pursue this not only for our son, but for the other children that
Father will come in contact with in the future.”
McNicholas did not meet with the parents, according to the attorney general’s report. He accepted Weerts’s resignation and transferred him to parishes in Ste. Marie and Bend.
Weerts was assigned to five parishes thereafter, including St. Boniface in Edwardsville.
In total, Weerts sexually abused approximately 20 young boys before he was criminally charged in 1985. Even then, according to the Illinois attorney general’s report, the diocese praised him: “With the exception of the matters for which he is under indictment,” it said, Weerts’s behavior has been “of the very best.”
In 1986, Weerts pleaded guilty to sexually abusing children and was sentenced to six years in prison.
Alvin Campbell
Survivors: 34
Area assignments included:
- 1982, Mother of Perpetual Help in Maryville
Father Campbell sexually abused children at several locations where he was assigned over a period of approximately 13 years, the attorney general’s report stated.
The abuse was reported during the following years and at these locations:
- 1969-1970: Fort Carson, CO
- 1978: Saint Jude, Rochester
- 1979-1985: Saint Mary, Assumption
- 1979-1985: Saint Maurice, Morrisonville
- 1981: Unknown
- 1982-1984: Mother of Perpetual Help, Maryville
The diocese claims it received the first report of abuse by Alvin Campbell in 1980. He was placed on the Catholic church’s public lists of abusers on Nov. 29, 2018.
In 1985, Campbell pleaded guilty but mentally ill in Illinois to sexual assault of children. He was sentenced to 14 years in prison.
In 1992, he was laicized by the church. He died in 2002.
Diocese of Springfield Bishop McNicholas was warned in 1978 about Campbell by a senior army chaplain who knew the priest when he served as a chaplain in the U.S. Army. The chaplain, in a call to the diocese, had said: “Campbell has a moral problem with boys/young men and this has surfaced and was being brought against him when he chose to resign. . . . [T]he matter had been handled ‘sub secreto’ through the Military delegate in Germany and there had been no scandal through publicity.”
The bishop assigned Campbell as pastor at Saint Jude in Rochester less than a month later anyway.
In 1979, he was named pastor at Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Assumption, and diocesan records show that Campbell began sexually abusing children in Assumption almost immediately. The diocese had notice of the abuse as early as January 1980 and, in December 1981, a family contacted McNicholas about Campbell’s “conduct with their daughter.”
That same month, Campbell resigned as pastor “for health reasons.” He was assigned to another parish within months.
From 1982 through 1985, Campbell ministered at Saint Maurice in Morrisonville, and the diocese has records that show Campbell abused 26 children while there. Those same records contain survivors’ descriptions of the abuse, including reported group masturbation, Campbell photographing abuse acts, groping and engaging in other sexual behavior with children.
The diocese left Campbell in place. Law enforcement, however, was alerted and criminally indicted Campbell in 1985 for molesting boys between the ages of 11 and 15. He pleaded guilty but mentally ill and was sentenced to 14 years in prison.
Records from the diocese show that Campbell is reported to have sexually abused 33 children while ministering in the Diocese of Springfield. Each was abused after McNicholas was warned by the U.S. Army senior chaplain that Campbell “has a moral problem with boys.”
Out of those, 26 of them were sexually abused after the diocese received the first report of abuse at Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Church’s response
The state report lists the clergy abusers and also details church leaders’ failure to protect victims while covering up the allegations to protect the clergy.
Current Diocese of Springfield Illinois Bishop Thomas John Paprocki issued this statement this week after the report was released:
“The Attorney General’s inquiry into the history of clergy sexual abuse of minors in this diocese has served as a reminder that some clergy in the Church committed shameful and disgraceful sins against innocent victim survivors and did damage that simply cannot be undone. As bishop of this diocese, I cannot undo the damages of the past, but I have been and continue to be fully committed to ensuring we do all we can to prevent abuse from happening again. The changes our diocese enacted have proven to be effective as we are not aware of a single incident of sexual abuse of a minor by clergy alleged to have occurred in this diocese in nearly 20 years.
“As difficult as this process has been for all involved, especially the victim survivors, we credit the Attorney General’s office for bringing about greater transparency, and, especially for keeping the spotlight on this issue to help us sustain the vigilance with which we guard against any future threat of abuse. We hope the Attorney General’s office continues this vigilance for creating a safer environment with other institutions, and it doesn’t stop with just the Catholic Church.
“We stand with the other five dioceses in Illinois in the commitments to accountability, transparency, reform, and sustained vigilance. Like the other five dioceses, we report allegations to civil authorities and encourage victim survivors to do the same, and we have a victim assistance ministry and special offices to handle childhood sexual abuse allegations. Our Review Board includes lay professionals with backgrounds in areas such as law enforcement, education, psychology, and medicine. They review and make recommendations to me regarding the withdrawal of clergy. We also conduct robust safe environment abuse prevention programs, which includes background checks for everyone who works and volunteers in the Church. We have also listed all substantiated cases of sexual abuse of a minor by clergy in this diocese on a public website.
“Our diocese has a Victim Assistance Coordinator ready to help anyone who has been victimized. I pledge to support victim survivors in any way we can and to sustain vigilance and take all the appropriate measures to prevent any future recurrence.”
A statement by the Illinois Catholic Dioceses said procedural changes have been made to better protect victims of sexual abuse and to find justice.
Policies include fair and respectful treatment for anyone bringing forth allegations of abuse, assistance from the diocese’s victim assistance ministry, all allegations of sexual abuse of a minor are reported to civil authorities, abuse by those who have died or have been laicized are investigated and handled in the same manner as all other allegations, and the diocese will cooperate with any and all investigations. More detailed procedures can be found on individual diocese websites.
Attorney general is critical
Raoul’s report, however, suggests Paprocki could have done more. It states that the diocese didn’t list substantiated child sex abusers placed online until November 2018 and it was not until September 2022 that Paprocki authorized the diocese’s homepage to include a link to a “List of clergy with substantiated allegations of sexual abuse of a minor.”
Prior to the report, the Catholic Church had named only 103 clergy abusers in Illinois, far fewer than the 451 identified in the report. In the Diocese of Springfield, a minimum of 163 victims were linked to the 32 clergymen identified in the new report.
Raoul said his office has provided recommendations to dioceses on how best to protect their members and investigate allegations to prevent the number of cases from rising.
“It is my hope that this report will shine light both on those who violated their positions of power and trust to abuse innocent children, and on the men in church leadership who covered up that abuse,” Raoul said Tuesday. “These perpetrators may never be held accountable in a court of law, but by naming them here, the intention is to provide a public accountability and a measure of healing to survivors who have long suffered in silence.”
Hearst Illinois reporter Samantha McDaniel-Ogletree and editor Ron DeBrock contributed to this report.