PEORIA, Ill. – The Illinois Attorney General’s report on sex abuse in the Catholic Church shows a lot of differences between claims made and reality, including in the Catholic Diocese of Peoria.
The section of the report dealing with the Peoria Diocese shows where the diocese claimed over the years it didn’t know about various allegations of abuse, while, the report says, documentation shows differently.
The report claims “bishops allowed the practices and attitudes of their predecessors to affect their handling of abuse cases, even as formal policies and practices changed.”
Of the 43 priests with credible allegations against them, the diocese claimed they only received notifications about nine of them prior to 1990, significantly increasing after that.
The first allegations occurred as early as 1946, and allegedly there’s no actual proof disciplinary action was done in that case.
Churches in Peoria and many of the 26 counties covered by the diocese are included.
In some cases, priests accused either ended up being reassigned to other parishes, or, in others, eventually moved back to the parish where the allegations occurred.
Several of the bishops allegedly handled abuse claims quietly, while it wasn’t until Daniel Jenky became bishop 21 years ago that they were dealt with more seriously and publicly.
It says “time will tell” if new bishop Louis Tylka will handle allegations the same way.
A total of 51 priests and brothers were listed as accused in the report.
Just last week, prior to the release of the report, the state’s Catholic Dioceses issued a joint statement listing how they would handle abuse cases going forward, with many recommendations made by the Attorney General.
Tuesday, the Catholic Diocese of Peoria said, “To the Diocese’s knowledge, there is not a single priest of the Diocese with a substantiated allegation who is currently in ministry, or who has not been reported to authorities.” It says all abuse allegations are reported to civil authorities.
