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Scroll of Abusive Clerics/Brothers

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Daniel Mark Holihan

Date/Location of Reported Abuse:

1960s: Chicago, IL
1962-1964: Chicago, IL
1965-1966: Chicago, IL
1965-1966: Wonder Lake, IL
1968-1971: Chicago, IL
1968-1971: Wonder Lake, IL
1978-1979: Chicago, IL
1980: Chicago, IL
1980: Wonder Lake, IL
1982: Chicago, IL
1982: Wonder Lake, IL
1982: Iowa
1983-2007: Chicago, IL
1983-2007: Wonder Lake, IL
1984 or 1985: Chicago, IL
1985-1991: Chicago, IL
Unknown: Cook County, IL

Reported Survivors:

Wayne Barron

Date/Location of Reported Abuse:

1972: Unknown

Reported Survivors:

At least 1

SEE COMPLETE LISTING >

In 2003, “Brandon” reported to the Franciscan Friars religious order that Father Jeffrey Salwach and another priest sexually abused him as a child. The abuse occurred at Saint Jude in New Lenox in the mid-1970s; it began when Brandon was 9 years old and lasted until he was 13. At the time, Salwach was a Franciscan brother but was not yet ordained a priest. Rather than seeking justice, however, the Franciscans sought to garner evidence of Salwach’s innocence, obfuscate any suggestion of his guilt, and bury the truth. Brandon sued Salwach, the Franciscans, and the Diocese of ...

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Patrick J. McNulty

Date/Location of Reported Abuse:

1970s: Unknown

Reported Survivors:

At least 1

Alberto Remando Tanghal

Date/Location of Reported Abuse:

1998-1999: Chicago, IL

Reported Survivors:

At least 1

John Turnbull

Date/Location of Reported Abuse:

1970s: Unknown

Reported Survivors:

At least 1

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Walter Weerts

Date/Location of Reported Abuse:

1964-1968: Saint Thomas, Edwardsville, IL
1964-1970: Collinsville, IL
1967-1968: Granite City, IL
1970s: Saint Paul, Highland, IL
1975-1976: Sacred Heart, Villa Grove, IL
1978-1981: Saint Thomas, Decatur, IL
1978-1982: Unknown
Unknown: St. Louis, MO
Unknown: Arkansas
Unknown: Colorado
Unknown: Florida
Unknown: Georgia
Unknown: Indiana
Unknown: Iowa
Unknown: Kentucky
Unknown: Tennesse

Reported Survivors:

Shortly after opening the clergy abuse hotline, the Attorney General’s investigators became familiar with the name of Father Walter Weerts. The three survivors who reached out all had similar experiences. Weerts first befriended their parents, all of whom were devout Catholics. Then he would buy the boys gifts and take them to fancy restaurants in his Mercedes—and eventually on trips in his private plane. “Little did you know you were on a date,” one of his survivors reflects today. The Diocese of Springfield’s files show both Bishop William O’Connor and ...

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Kevin (Dennis Kevin) McBrien

Date/Location of Reported Abuse:

1977-1978: Joliet Catholic Academy, Joliet, IL

Reported Survivors:

At least 1

Gary D. Berthiaume

Date/Location of Reported Abuse:

1977: Our Lady of Sorrows, Farmington, MI

Reported Survivors:

Leonard Prusinski

Date/Location of Reported Abuse:

Unknown

Reported Survivors:

At least 1

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Daniel L. Ryan

Date/Location of Reported Abuse:

1982-1999: Unknown

Reported Survivors:

Bishop Daniel Ryan was an important man. As the head of the Diocese of Springfield from 1984 to 1999, he was charged with governing tens of thousands of Catholics in central Illinois—counting among his responsibilities teaching doctrine, representing the church, and sanctifying the world. What “Scott” remembers, however, is the way Ryan smelled. “Like old stink and alcohol,” he told the Attorney General’s investigators. Many decades have passed since Ryan raped Scott repeatedly in the basement of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Springfield. &...

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John (Gregory) Knoernschild

Date/Location of Reported Abuse:

1977-1978: Crespi Carmelite High School, Encino, CA

Reported Survivors:

John Baptist (J.B.) Ormechea

Date/Location of Reported Abuse:

1963-1966: Unknown
Late 1970s-early 1980s: Unknown

Reported Survivors:

Francis X. Nawn

Date/Location of Reported Abuse:

1962-1988: Unknown

Reported Survivors:

At least 24

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Aloysius Piorkowski

Date/Location of Reported Abuse:

1949-1964: Unknown
1962-1964: Kane County, IL

Reported Survivors:

At least 2

What does it mean when a priest is said to be suffering “some rather serious difficulties”? No one doubts this was an apt, if cryptic, description of Father Aloysius Piorkowski in the summer of 1962. He was born in the early twentieth century in Poland, where he was also ordained, and at some point made his way to the Archdiocese of Chicago, where he served as an assistant pastor at Saint Pancratius in the city’s Brighton Park neighborhood. He left Chicago in 1947 for the Diocese of Lincoln in Nebraska, and in 1959 he arrived at Boys Town, a church facility serving orphans ...

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James Vincent Fitzgerald

Date/Location of Reported Abuse:

1960s-1980s: Minnesota; South Dakota

Reported Survivors:

At least 1

Peter (Adrian) Lickteig

Date/Location of Reported Abuse:

1959: Saint Joseph, Leavenworth, KS

Reported Survivors:

At least 1

Robert Craig

Date/Location of Reported Abuse:

1975-1976: Chicago, IL
1978-1979: Chicago, IL
1982-1991: Chicago, IL
1986-1991: Chicago, IL
1986-1991: Mundelien, IL
Unknown

Reported Survivors:

SEE COMPLETE LISTING >

Kenneth Roberts

Date/Location of Reported Abuse:

1980s: LaSalle County, IL
1984: St. Clair County, IL

Reported Survivors:

Not just any priest puts pen to paper to create a book chronicling what led him to the priesthood. But Father Ken Roberts was not just any priest. He wrote about his transition from a jet-setting lifestyle to the priesthood in a 1975 autobiography titled Playboy to Priest. Although Roberts was a priest of the Diocese of Dallas in Texas, his celebrity status and role as retreat master gave him access to children across the nation—including central Illinois. One of those children was “William,” a survivor of Roberts’ abuse whose revictimization by the Diocese of Peoria is...

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Definitions

Terms are defined as provided in the United States Catholic Conference of Bishops Glossary of Catholic Terms, unless denoted with *.

Altar server: Individuals, usually children, who assist clerics during liturgical functions such as mass. Prior to 1994, only men and boys were permitted to be altar servers.*
Archbishop: The title given automatically to bishops who govern archdioceses. It is also given to certain other high-ranking church officials.
Archdiocese: The chief diocese of an ecclesiastical province. It is governed by an archbishop.
Auxiliary Bishop: A bishop assigned to a Catholic diocese or archdiocese to assist its residential bishop.
Bishop: The highest order of ordained ministry in the Catholic Church. The chief priests in their respective dioceses. Bishops are responsible for the pastoral care of their dioceses. All bishops have a responsibility to act in council with other bishops to guide the church.
Brother: A man who has taken vows in a religious order but is not ordained or studying for the priesthood. Sometimes he is called a lay brother to distinguish him from ordained members of religious orders.
Canon Law: A code of ecclesiastical laws governing the Catholic Church.
Cardinal: Highest-ranking Catholic clergy below the pope. Cardinals are regarded as the pope's closest advisors. Most cardinals are archbishops.
Chancellor: The chief archivist of a diocese's official records. Also a notary and secretary of the diocese’s central administration.
Clergy/Cleric: Clergy is a collective term referring to all those ordained—bishops, priests, and deacons—who administer the rites of the church. A cleric is an individual member of the clergy. Only men are permitted to join the clergy.
Confession or Reconciliation: The Catholic sacrament in which one makes a voluntary self-accusation of sins to a qualified priest in private in order to obtain absolution. The priest provides the confessor, also known as the penitent, with a penance to atone for sins committed. A priest who hears confession is forbidden from disclosing the contents of a confession to others under what is called the seal of confession.*
Curia: The personnel and offices through which (1) the pope administers the affairs of the universal church (the Roman Curia), or (2) a bishop administers the affairs of a diocese (the diocesan curia). The principal officials of a diocesan curia are the vicar general, the chancellor, officials of the diocesan tribunal or court, examiners, consultors, auditors, and notaries.
Dallas Charter: The Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People sets forth policies for each United States archdiocese and diocese to adopt as part of an effort to address allegations of child sex abuse by Catholic clergy. The Charter was formulated at the 2002 meeting of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in Dallas, Texas. The Charter was revised in 2005, 2011, and 2018.
Deacon: One of three groups that comprise the clergy, meaning those ordained for ministry. Only men are permitted to become deacons. Deacons preparing for the priesthood are transitional deacons. Those not planning to be ordained priests are called permanent deacons. Married men may be ordained permanent deacons, but only unmarried men committed to lifelong celibacy can be ordained deacons if they are planning to become priests.
Diocesan Priest: Priests under the direction of their local bishop. Most serve in the parishes of the diocese, but they may also be assigned to other diocesan ministries or released for service outside the diocese.
Diocese: A territorial division of the Church headed by a bishop.
Extern Priest: A priest with faculties to minister in a diocese or archdiocese who was not ordained in that diocese or archdiocese. For example, a diocesan priest from the Diocese of Springfield who has been granted faculties to minister by the Archdiocese of Chicago is an extern priest.*
Faculty/Faculties: Church authorization, given by the law itself or by a Church superior, to perform certain official acts.
Flock: Members of the Catholic Church. Derived from Catholic teachings that clergy are like shepherds guiding a flock.*
Laicize or Defrock: The process by which a priest is returned to the lay state. It is sometimes used as a penalty for a serious crime, but also can come at the request of the priest. A laicized priest is barred from all priestly ministry with one exception: He may give absolution to someone in immediate danger of death. The pope must approve all requests for laicization. When a priest is laicized without his consent for a crime, such as committing child sexual abuse, it is sometimes called defrocking.
Ministry: Any activity conducive to the salvation of souls. It can include ordained ministry such as liturgical leadership and administration of the sacraments, or lay ministry such as instructing children in the faith, serving the poor, visiting the sick, or being an altar server, reader, or music leader at mass.
Monsignor: An honorary ecclesiastical title granted by the pope to some diocesan priests.
Nun: A member of a religious order of women who has taken solemn or simple vows.
Ordained/Ordination: Ordination is the sacramental ceremony in which a man becomes a deacon, priest, or bishop. A cleric who has undergone ordination is known as ordained.*
Parish: A specific community within a diocese with its own church building and under the authority of a pastor who is responsible for providing ministerial service. Most parishes are formed on a geographic basis, but they may be formed along national or ethnic lines.
Pastor: A priest in charge of a Catholic parish or congregation.
Penance: Acts performed to atone for committed sins, as directed by a priest in the Catholic sacrament of reconcilliation.*
Rectory: Residential housing for clergy provided by the Church. A rectory can also contain administrative offices for a parish.*
Religious Cleric: Professed member of a religious order or institute. Religious clergy live according to the rule of their respective orders.
Religious Order or Order: An institution of men or women, at least some of whose members take solemn vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, and whose male members are sometimes ordained.*
Seminary: An educational institution for men preparing for the priesthood.
Vicar: A cleric who acts in the name of another cleric.*
Vicar general: A priest, auxiliary bishop, or coadjutor bishop who assists the diocesan bishop in the governance of the diocese.
Victims Assistance Coordinator: A diocesan employee who has been designated to coordinate assistance to survivors of sex abuse by clerics.*