Official finding Christian institutions & contexts Catholic Illinois, USA · 2023

Illinois attorney general report: 451 substantiated Catholic clerics and religious brothers, at least 1,997 children

Record class

Institutional event

Evidence status

Official finding

Authority role

Catholic priests and deacons, religious brothers, archbishops and bishops responsible for assignments and safeguarding, diocesan officials receiving and investigating reports

Organization

Archdiocese of Chicago, Diocese of Belleville, Diocese of Joliet, Diocese of Peoria, Diocese of Rockford, Diocese of Springfield in Illinois

Archive classification

This is the archive's application of its published inclusion test. The cited record appears below.

The official report concerns abuse committed through Catholic clerical and religious ministry and the institutional decisions that preserved or renewed access. It documents transfers of known abusers between parishes, acceptance of known abusers from other dioceses, concealment from Catholic communities and the public, and failures to report. The authority at issue was pastoral, sacramental, educational and institutional rather than a merely incidental religious affiliation.

Pastoral or clerical authority
Institutional obedience or isolation

Evidence structure

Proceedings

2023-05-23 · multi-year investigation and final report

Office of the Illinois Attorney General. After reviewing more than 100,000 pages of diocesan documents, thousands of claim files and more than 600 confidential survivor contacts, the attorney general published the state's first comprehensive accounting across all six Illinois dioceses: 451 discrete Catholic clerics and religious brothers substantiated by Catholic sources as child sex abusers and claims involving at least 1,997 children.

Documented coercion mechanisms

clerical and religious authority
parish, school and ministry access to children
transfer or continued assignment after reports
institutional concealment and delayed disclosure
failure to report known abuse to public authorities

Cited record

Sources

official attorney general report official finding Office of the Illinois Attorney General, Report on Catholic Clergy Child Sex Abuse in Illinois (May 23, 2023).: The official report records the investigation's substantiation definition, six-diocese scope, source methodology, 451 discrete substantiated clerics and religious brothers, at least 1,997 reported survivors, institutional-response findings and policy recommendations.
official attorney general report site methodology and findings Office of the Illinois Attorney General, 'Introduction,' Report on Catholic Clergy Child Sex Abuse in Illinois (2023).: The official report site defines substantiated abuse, describes review of more than 100,000 pages and more than 600 confidential survivor contacts, explains how Catholic sources substantiated the listed individuals and documents transfer, concealment and reporting failures.
official attorney general release official summary Office of the Illinois Attorney General, 'Attorney General Raoul Releases Report Concluding Multi-Year Investigation into Child Sex Abuse by Members of Catholic Clergy in Illinois' (May 23, 2023).: The official release confirms the publication date, final statewide figures, review scale, institutional-response findings and resulting policy changes across the six dioceses.

Source provenance

Source access and integrity log

This log records source retrieval and file integrity. It does not mean that an automated process independently confirmed every statement in the source.

Source and tier basis: https://clergyreport.illinoisattorneygeneral.gov/download/report.pdf Corpus classification: official-attorney-general-report; evidentiary role: official-finding. SHA-256 70e03a50f90c849435fa26590ce5442e92494859fd0ba874a6a90e04cdd96345
Retrieval: 2026-07-20 · Preserved; Bound by Fear automated source-preservation ledger
Source and tier basis: https://clergyreport.illinoisattorneygeneral.gov/introduction/ Corpus classification: official-attorney-general-report-site; evidentiary role: methodology-and-findings. SHA-256 f738fe63dc7f42832916445bbcd08e5170bd031e48c8336c76a95f96b9fa2dad
Retrieval: 2026-07-20 · Preserved; Bound by Fear automated source-preservation ledger
Source and tier basis: https://illinoisattorneygeneral.gov/news/story/attorney-general-raoul-releases-report-concluding-multi-year-investigation-into-child-sex-abuse-by-members-of-catholic-clergy-in-illinois Corpus classification: official-attorney-general-release; evidentiary role: official-summary. SHA-256 146aaab1a5cc5e9869a28e82c2e93242d5f3c4417c57ca6f0ec27213124fd2fd
Retrieval: 2026-07-20 · Preserved; Bound by Fear automated source-preservation ledger

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