CHICAGO (IL)
The Patch [Chicago IL]
December 6, 2023
By Lauren Traut
Enraged by inaction surrounding abuse claims against a former Providence HS priest, a survivors network wants Catholic leaders to act.
NEW LENOX, IL — In the wake of a $2 million settlement reached in a lawsuit over rape allegations against a Catholic priest, a network of abuse survivors is seeking answers from the Vatican in a complaint filed last week.
Reached last month, the settlement will result in Providence Catholic High School and the religious order that runs the school paying $2 million to a former student who alleged he was raped by a priest at the school.
The organization Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP) is now decrying the actions of five specific officials as “repeated and deliberate recklessness, callousness and secrecy,” in a complaint sent to the Vatican. The complaint, SNAP wrote, was filed in “a sincere, even desperate, hope that the Vatican hierarchy will take immediate and severe corrective measures to protect the vulnerable, heal the wounded and expose the truth.”
The Augustinian Catholic religious order and the school reached the settlement last month as a trial in the lawsuit involving the embattled Rev. Richard McGrath loomed. Former student Robert Krankvich alleged in 2017 that McGrath had raped him when he was a teen.
The settlement was the culmination of years of confusion and mystery cloaking the priest and the case—years that included other, numerous allegations against McGrath, claims of child pornography, lack of cooperation with police that led to squashed investigations and his subsequent abrupt departure from the school, relocation to a friary near a preschool, and then, months later, his apparent disappearance from that facility.
“Fr. Richard J. McGrath walks free, unmonitored, unsupervised and unpunished, living at an undisclosed location in/near Chicago, despite being ousted from his job at a school by his church supervisor, having what a student thought was an image of a naked boy on his phone, withholding that phone from superiors and law enforcement, refusing to meet with police, living for some time at a friary near a preschool and a grade school, taking the Fifth amendment, facing at least one civil abuse and cover up lawsuit (which recently settled for $2 million), disobeying his supervisors yet being on no official church ‘credibly accused’ abuser list anywhere,” the complaint reads.
Named in the document are Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich, Joliet Bishop Ronald Hicks, Rockford Bishop David Malloy, Cardinal Robert Prevost and Fr. Anthony Pizzo. McGrath reportedly worked personally or in the dioceses of Cupich, Hicks and Malloy. Prevost is listed as a top Vatican official overseeing the selection of all new bishops, as well as a Chicago area native, the former head of the Augustinian’s Midwest province and the former international head of the group. Pizzo currently oversees the Chicago-area Augustinians, and the complaint alleges he is responsible for the lack of disclosure of accused priests.
“At a bare minimum, some of these five men could either oust the Augustinians from their jurisdictions or force them to disclose the names of their child molesting clerics,” wrote David Clohessy, former director of SNAP.
“All of them could and should use their vast resources to seek out and beg others with information or suspicions about clergy sex crimes and cover-ups to step forward and call the police. Some or all of them could push for Fr. McGrath to be defrocked, demoted, disciplined or even just publicly denounced, so that parents, neighbors and potential employers would be warned about him. Some or all of them could vigorously prod their staffs and flocks to contact law enforcement if they saw, suspected or suffered wrongdoing by Fr. McGrath.
“Yet they essentially choose to do nothing.”
The complaint goes on to again call for a list of accused priests to be made available for public access.
Called “recalcitrant and secretive” in the complaint, the Augustinian order, SNAP says, should “join the dozens of other US Catholic religious orders and dioceses that have disclosed and posted the names of and information about proven, admitted and credibly accused” members of its ranks.
“… That a credibly accused cleric like Fr. McGrath is on the loose, in a community where he is well known, with no warning to others and no mention whatsoever on any official public church ‘credibly accused’ abusers list in 2023 is especially egregious and disturbing,” the complaint reads.
Krankvich came forward with his allegations after McGrath was previously investigated on allegations of child pornography. In that case, a female student allegedly told an adult that she had seen McGrath viewing a photo of a naked boy on his phone while attending a wrestling match at the high school. That investigation hit a wall when authorities said McGrath refused to cooperate with a New Lenox Police investigation, and declined to hand over the cell phone. The investigation was squashed. Krankvich later filed a lawsuit against the school and Augustinian Order.
The child pornography allegations spurred McGrath’s abrupt departure from the school, where he had served as president and/or principal since the mid-1980s. Police also investigated Krankvich’s claims, but no charges were filed.
Other accusations against McGrath were detailed in an anonymous letter sent to the school. In that letter, the parent of a student who attended the school between 2006 and 2010 wrote that McGrath had reportedly massaged students’ shoulders, the Chicago Sun-Times reports. Later, in 2018, another man would call McGrath’s successor Rev. John Merkelis, accusing McGrath and one other priest of molesting him. The man ultimately recanted, but the Sun-Times reports that police reports detailed the man said McGrath would enter the boys’ locker room, standing and talking with them as they showered. In a deposition, McGrath said he did not recall doing that. When questioned under oath regarding the child pornography accusation, McGrath invoked his Fifth Amendment right, declining to answer to avoid self-incrimination.
Amidst the conflict, McGrath moved to a friary in Hyde Park. Months later, he was AWOL from that facility—“unlawfully absent” from the Augustinian Order. A source in 2018 told Patch that McGrath had left the order after conflict surrounding the scandal, because he had felt bullied and unsupported by the order. The friary where he lived has since been listed for sale for $1 million, reports the Sun-Times.
It’s unclear where McGrath now resides. Court documents show that the Augustinian order is moving closer to expelling McGrath from its ranks, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.
“… the bar for inclusion on an official church ‘credibly accused’ list is much lower than for criminal prosecution,” Clohessy wrote in the complaint. “It’s inexcusable that neither the heads of the Joliet or Rockford dioceses nor the Chicago Archdiocese will take even this tiny, cheap, easy step toward the prevention of heinous child sex crimes.”
Earlier this year, following a five-year investigation, Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul issued recommendations to Catholic officials on how to better prevent and handle clergy sex crimes and coverups.
None of the five men named in the complaint have “adopted, nor even pledged to adopt, even one of those recommendations from the state’s highest ranking law enforcement official,” SNAP wrote.
“Their behavior is bolstering a deep-seated, long-standing culture of denying, ignoring, minimizing and discouraging the reporting of child sex crimes in the church,” according to the complaint.
“… These five men are treating one potentially dangerous child predator, Fr. McGrath, like a ‘hot potato,’ doing little or nothing to protect kids while making excuses and claiming he’s someone else’s responsibility.
“Action protects kids. Warning others about potentially dangerous credibly accused child molesters protects kids.
… Disciplining clerics who ‘enable’ abuse—even more than disciplining the abusers themselves—protects kids.”