Salvatore Formusa
Father Salvatore Formusa served within the Archdiocese of Chicago at the beginning of his career and abused children while serving in the Diocese of Joliet later in his career. Today, the Diocese of Joliet and the Archdiocese of Chicago acknowledge Formusa as having been credibly accused of sexually abusing children.
Formusa was ordained a priest of the Archdiocese of Chicago in 1935. His third assignment after ordination was to Saint Anthony in Joliet in 1945; he served there until 1950. In December 1948, Pope Pius XII issued a decree establishing the new Diocese of Joliet from portions of the Archdiocese of Chicago and the dioceses of Rockford and Peoria. Formusa became a priest of the new Diocese of Joliet because his parish fell within its territory.
Formusa’s first known instance of abuse occurred in the early 1960s while he was pastor of Holy Trinity in Westmont. The exact details are unclear, as the only apparent documentation was in shorthand notes of Romeo Blanchette, who at the time was the Diocese of Joliet’s vicar general and would eventually become its second bishop. According to Blanchette’s notes, in or around October 1962, a 9 year old girl in the fourth grade visited Formusa “concerned about [her] parents’ marital difficulties.” Blanchette’s notes further indicate that Formusa sat the girl in his lap, kissed her three times, and “explained about babies.” The notes also reveal that Formusa made a reference to “something hard in [his] pants” and that there was “[i]ndecent exposure. She handled him.” Formusa told the girl not to tell her mother: “It’s our secret,” he insisted. “We’re going to be real good friends.” Blanchette consulted Westmont’s police chief, who said he was aware of two previous incidents involving Formusa. One parent had reported Formusa’s improper advances toward his daughter, while another parent had reported that her teenage daughter did not want to be alone with Formusa.
Formusa told the girl not to tell her mother: “It’s our secret,” he insisted. “We’re going to be real good friends.”
Blanchette then spoke to Formusa, who “admitted the child’s story” and “[d]id not try to deny his guilt.” Formusa said he was willing to “express sorrow to [the] parents of [the] girl,” but Blanchette told him “not to say anything.” Blanchette told Formusa he would ask the girl and her parents “not to talk to anyone about this, so that there would be no widespread scandal.” Blanchette sent Formusa to an Alexian Brothers facility in Wisconsin for psychological testing and therapy.
During his stay at the psychiatric facility, Formusa pleaded with Blanchette to remain at his assignment in Westmont, pledging “that this thing will never happen again.” Blanchette advised Formusa to resign the post, but Formusa asked Blanchette to reconsider. He insisted there was no public scandal concerning his admitted sexual acts with the 9 year old girl. And he noted he “pleaded guilty on one count, but not on three.” Formusa continued to deny the two allegations made to the Westmont police, even going so far as to call one of those survivors “delinquent” and “feeble-minded.” Blanchette responded by observing Formusa’s “tendency to minimize the incidents which led to” his stay at the psychiatric facility. “Just as the alcoholic cannot become better unless he admits that he needs help, so, too, in your case it may be that you will benefit from professional advice only if you convince yourself that you need help to cope with your problems.”
Blanchette told Formusa he would ask the girl and her parents “not to talk to anyone about this, so that there would be no widespread scandal.”
Nevertheless, Formusa was immediately shuffled to another parish upon his release from the psychiatric facility just a few months later. And barely a year into Formusa’s tenure at Immaculate Conception in Braidwood, he was the subject of another allegation of sexual misconduct. The mother of a 15 year old girl complained to the diocese in May 1964 that Formusa had chosen her daughter to help make a scrapbook in the rectory. According to Blanchette’s notes, Formusa offered the girl a bottle of beer, sat on her knee, and showed her a “sex book.” He then told the girl that he wanted to learn to dance, took her by the arm, and picked her up in the air. Formusa talked about the first night of marriage and told the teenager to “[p]romise to come back at 7:30 [to] learn to dance.” When she didn’t show up, Formusa called the girl’s home in search of her.
Blanchette determined that Formusa’s actions were “highly imprudent” and there “is a grave risk involved.” Blanchette warned Formusa that his behavior “indicated he had strong impulses [about] sexuality.” Blanchette wrote:
I told him that after the episode in Westmont, we’d expect him to be on his guard much more than a normal person. For this reason his sitting on the lap of a 15-year-old girl was extremely imprudent, and could easily have led to more serious actions. The risk is great, and so considering the whole picture, we could not for his good and the good of the Church chance his remaining in Braidwood. I asked for his letter of resignation, which he gave me, dated and signed the day before. I told him that he should not be in a rectory alone, that the presence of other priests was a help, although it was not an absolute deterrent—as shown by the Westmont episode.
Despite repeated incidents, the Diocese of Joliet still returned Formusa to ministry just six months later in November 1964. Not surprisingly, Formusa sexually abused yet another child. In July 1968, Formusa was formally charged in DuPage County with the crime of indecent liberties with a child—fondling a young girl under the age of 16. A handwritten note in the diocese’s file suggests the victim was just 9 years old.
Blanchette was now the Bishop of Joliet; in response to these charges, he finally withdrew Formusa’s faculties to hear the confessions of children in January 1969. Yet in 1971, Bishop Blanchette allowed Formusa—who was working toward a master’s degree in counseling—to provide psychotherapy to adults. The bishop also continued to assign Formusa to parish work, although he forbade him to have contact with children. Even this did not prevent Formusa from abusing; he simply shifted his abuse to adults.
In 1985, the diocese was contacted by a lawyer representing a woman who claimed that Formusa became sexually involved with her while he was her therapist. Although the matter settled out of court, Bishop Joseph Imesch wrote Formusa a telling letter in 1988: “There is no doubt in my mind that had the plaintiff or the lawyer for the plaintiff been more aggressive, there would have been a much higher settlement. Not only do I think you should pay [your lawyer’s] entire bill, but I would even think that you should light a vigil light for him!” Then, in 2002, the diocese received allegations from another woman who saw Formusa for counseling in the 1970s when she was in her twenties. She said Formusa sat in her lap, grabbed her and hugged her tightly, and made inappropriate sexual comments, all while she was going through a divorce.
Finally, in 2006, the Diocese of Joliet publicly acknowledged Formusa as having been credibly accused of sexual abuse. And despite that Formusa began his career in the archdiocese—and even lived in Chicago after he was credibly accused of sexually abusing children—not until October 2022 did the Archdiocese of Chicago acknowledge him as a substantiated child sex abuser.