Illinois AG report documents 51 priest abuse cases in Diocese of Peoria

Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul on Tuesday released a report detailing information on 451 Catholic priests and religious brothers who abused almost 2,000 children in the state over more than seven decades.

Raoul said the almost 700-page report adds to the list of 103 substantiated cases the six Illinois dioceses had listed before the state investigation began in 2018.

The report included 51 documented cases in the Diocese of Peoria, which includes La Salle, Bureau, Putnam and Marshall counties, among 21 others. Of those cases, 23 had served in parishes in La Salle, Bureau, Putnam and Marshall counties at some time. Seven of those abuse cases were reported in La Salle County, two in Bureau County and one in Marshall County.

Raoul said the most recent substantiated cases occurred more than 10 years ago.

“There were substantiated cases into the 2000s – maybe 2010 or so,” he said.

The Attorney General’s Report on Catholic Clergy Child Sex Abuse in Illinois was released Tuesday morning.

The Diocese of Peoria issued a statement Tuesday saying there is no priest in the Diocese with a substantiated allegation who currently is in the ministry or who has not been reported to authorities.

“Over the past 20 years, the Diocese under Bishop Daniel Jenky’s leadership, with the assistance of the Diocesan attorney Patricia Gibson, the vicars general and the Diocesan Review Board has endeavored to treat all survivors with the utmost respect and sensitivity,” the Diocese said in a news statement. “As noted in the Attorney General’s report, the Diocese has implemented significant changes that have made the Church safer for children. The Diocese reports all allegations of abuse to civil authorities.”

The attorney general’s report detailed priests with substantiated cases, the parishes and the timeline of when they served. Some narratives were included in the report. One narrative focused on George Piland’s abuse of a boy in the mid-1960s at St. Stephen School in Streator.

According to the attorney general report, the Diocese of Peoria did not publicly acknowledge Hiland as having been credibly accused of child sex abuse until 2018, a few months after the attorney general began investigating. Yet, the diocese had known Hiland was a predator priest for 25 years, the report said. A 1993 memo described Hiland’s abuse of a seventh grader in Streator in the 1970s and his admission to abusing a second. A 1994 letter from Bishop John Myers, who led the Diocese from 1990 to 2001, to Hiland acknowledged both men’s “sadness at the circumstances which have prompted you to submit your resignation as the Pastor of St. Patrick’s Parish, Dwight, and to seek retirement status in the diocese.”

The diocese did not report Hiland’s abuse to law enforcement at the time of the incident, waiting to do so until 2018, after the attorney general began investigating. A 1993 document helps to explain why, the attorney general’s report said. A church official wrote that such cases “should be managed in a way that restricts it to counseling at a moderate fee for a reasonable amount of time. The difficulty with counseling is that it can reinforce the desire to sue for compensation in large amounts. But this is a risk the priest and diocese has to take to fulfill our own policies.” In other words, the diocese was more concerned for its own bottom line than achieving justice for survivors, the attorney general’s report said.

Raoul’s office said Jenky, who succeeded Myers until retirement in March 2022, took a number of steps forward in acknowledging child sex abuse by Catholic clerics. Most notably, Jenky publicly removed a number of clerics from ministry after they had been credibly accused of child sex abuse. Additionally, he attempted to correct the missteps of his predecessors, publicly acknowledging clerics with credible allegations received before he became bishop. He established a review commission to advise him on sexual abuse cases, and created the victims assistance coordinator position to directly interface with survivors, the attorney general’s office said.

Jenky was not able to entirely distance the diocese from past administrations, including its unclear record-keeping and inadequate investigations, the attorney general’s office said. The diocese did not publicly list clerics who were substantiated child sex abusers or acknowledge credibly accused religious order or extern priests until after the attorney general’s investigation began.

Likewise, the diocese made written reports of a significant number of child sex abuse claims against clerics to local state’s attorneys only after the attorney general’s investigation began. The diocese’s treatment of survivors under Jenky was less than exemplary, the attorney general’s office said.

There is not enough information to know how Bishop Louis Tylka, who began his tenure as bishop in March 2022, has handled sexual abuse cases, the attorney general’s office said.

“The report highlights criminal behavior that has historically been present in every sector of human life, and which is all the more shocking when perpetrated by those who have publicly committed themselves to serving God and his people,” the Peoria Diocese said in a statement. “Much of the information in the report dates to more than half a century ago. The steps that the Church in the United States put into place some 20 years ago have gone a long way to address the scourge of sexual abuse and it is our sincere hope that other areas of our society will implement similar safeguards that protect the most vulnerable among us.”

According to the attorney general’s report, the dioceses provided “full support and cooperation” for the investigation, giving access to more than 100,000 pages of documents and “countless interviews” with diocesan representatives and attorneys.

About 132,000 of the population in the Peoria Diocese region is Catholic, or 9%.

Here are the clerics who were assigned to parishes in La Salle, Bureau, Putnam and Marshall counties that the report identified with substantiated cases against them:

Robert O. Barnett

1964-1966: Abuse reported in La Salle County

1966: St. Francis of Assisi, Ottawa

Walter Bruening

(Time range unavailable) St. Mary and St. Joseph, Henry

John Joseph Casey

1940s: Abuse location unknown

1940s: St. Patrick, La Salle

Louis Condon

1958-2000: Abuse location unknown

(Time range unavailable) St. Mary, DePue

1982: St. Margaret Hospital, Spring Valley

Robert Creager

1972-1982: Abuse reported in La Salle County

(Time range unavailable) St. Patrick, Ottawa

Francis Engels

1976-1984: Abuse reported in Bureau County

1970: St. Columba, Ottawa

John V. Farris

(Time range unavailable) St. Patrick, La Salle

William Harbert

1981: Immaculate Conception, Ohio

1977: St. John, Walnut

1992: St. Joseph Home, Lacon

George Hiland

1970: Abuse reported in La Salle County

(Time range unavailable) St. Stephen, Streator

(Time range unavailable) St. Patrick, Arlington

(Time range unavailable) Sacred Heart Mission, Dimmick

(Time range unavailable) St. Thomas, Dalzell

William Isermann

Abuse reported: 1950s-1970s in La Salle County

1958: St. Patrick, Ottawa

1958: St. Patrick, Ransom

(Time range unavailable) St. Mary, DePue

1963: Immaculate Conception, Streator

1964: St. Peter and Paul: Leonore

Robert Hughes

1950s-1970s: Allegations in La Salle County

M. Duane Leclercq

1989: St. Theresa, Earlville

1994: St. Patrick, La Salle

2003: Sacred Heart, Granville

2003: St. Patrick, Hennepin

John Onderko

1971: Abuse reported in La Salle County

1962: St. Hyacinth, La Salle

1980: Holy Cross, Mendota

1993: Resurrection, La Salle

Toussaint Perron

1992: Abuse reported at St. John, Walnut

Gordon Pillon

(Time range unavailable) St. Patrick, La Salle

(Time range unavailable) St. Hyacinth, La Salle

Gregory James Plunkett

1988: St. Columba, Ottawa

Samuel Pusateri

1989-1990: Abuse reported at St. Bede

1980-1991: St. Bede, Peru

Kenneth Roberts

1980s: Abuse reported in La Salle County

Ronald Roth

1966: Holy Family, Oglesby

1978: St. Patrick, Ransom

1983: St. John, Lostant

John J. Ryan

1951: St. Patrick, Ottawa

Laurence Schumacher

1966: Abuse reported in Marshall County

1930: Immaculate Conception, Streator

1947: St. Mary, Henry

1970: St. Theresa, Earlville

1971: Immaculate Conception, Streator

Bernard Tomaszewski