Documentary record Bound by Fear
← Explore all cases
Conviction Christian institutions & contexts Other or denomination not established Waukegan and Oregon, Illinois, USA · 1991

United States: Episcopal priest Richard Kearney convicted of abusing teenage boys in his parishes

Record class

Core record

Evidence status

Convicted

Authority role

Episcopal priest, Diocese of Chicago

Organization

Episcopal Diocese of Chicago

Spiritual nexus

Kearney used his position as parish priest to access and groom teenage boys in his own congregations; a college-age victim's 1980s disclosure to his bishop was followed by delay in police notification rather than immediate report, during which at least one further boy was abused.

  • Pastoral or clerical authority

Evidence structure

Proceedings

  1. 1991-03-01 · guilty plea and sentence

    Illinois state court. Kearney pleaded guilty to four counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse of teenage boys in his parishes in the mid-1980s and was sentenced to four years' imprisonment, of which he served approximately 18 months. He was deposed from the priesthood in March 1991. A subsequent civil suit against the diocese, alleging bishops delayed reporting an earlier disclosure to police, was settled for $750,000 in 2022.

Documented coercion mechanisms

  • pastoral authority over teenage parishioners
  • institutional delay by diocesan bishops after disclosure

Primary record

Sources

institutional reporting news report 'Chicago Episcopal diocese's $750,000 sex abuse case involving Richard Kearney puts Bishop Chilton Knudsen's actions under scrutiny', Chicago Sun-Times, 3 June 2022.

Report detailing Kearney's 1991 conviction, sentence, and the diocese's later civil settlement over its handling of an earlier disclosure.

institutional reporting institutional statement 'Revisiting Diocesan Files on Clergy Sexual Abuse', Episcopal Diocese of Chicago.

The diocese's own account of Kearney's conviction and deposition from the priesthood.

Related record

Related cases · Christian institutions & contexts

← Explore all cases