Barry Duke, the Angry Atheist

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   You get drivel about aliens, abduction etc from all sorts of people, not just Christians – there are atheists, agnostics…

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   […] last time I had had occasion to write about Rowan County clerk Kim Davis, above, was three years ago…

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   Whatever is presented on the BBC, and I must admit I do not watch the TV, the fact is that…

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   “The curriculum had already drawn tensions among the county’s religious parents, with some worrying about appropriateness and arguing the material…

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   As someone who produced dozens of nativity plays as a teacher and a Sunday School leader, that title ‘A Gay…

BEFORE an investigation began in 2018 into child sex abuse allegations and the public disclosure of substantiated child sex abusers, six Catholic dioceses listed only 103 substantiated abusers. But a report just released by Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul, above, reveals that 451 Catholic clerics and religious brothers abused at least 1,997 children across all of the dioceses in his state.

Raoul said in his report:

Decades of Catholic leadership decisions and policies have allowed known child sex abusers to hide, often in plain sight. And because the statute of limitations has frequently expired, many survivors of child sex abuse at the hands of Catholic clerics will never see justice in a legal sense.

It is my hope that this report will shine light both on those who violated their positions of power and trust to abuse innocent children, and on the men in church leadership who covered up that abuse.

These perpetrators may never be held accountable in a court of law, but by naming them here, the intention is to provide a public accountability and a measure of healing to survivors who have long suffered in silence.

Cover-up examples

In its coverage of the the report, the National Catholic Register gave some examples of many cover-ups exposed by Raoul’s investigation. many such cases revealed in the report.

One related to Fr. Walter Weerts, who was given eight parish assignments in fewer than 15 years under the leadership of Bishop William O’Connor. 

In 1962, during his second assignment, the parents of a young boy alleged the priest had wrestled with their son nude.

Eight other families made similar allegations about the priest’s interactions with their children. The bishop did not take any action and the priest allegedly abused at least 22 boys. 

Image via Shaw Local (provided)

Bishop Joseph Imesch of the Diocese of Joliet, above left, was named in the report for having:

Engaged in a pattern of keeping cleric abusers in circulation in the diocese without restriction.

Imesch, who served as bishop of Joliet from 1979 to 2006, testified in 2005 that he kept priests in ministry even though he knew they had credible allegations made against them. He died in 2015 at the age of 84.

Image via DuPage County Sheriff’s Office

Fr Frederick Lenczycki, above, was one of the priests Imesch admitted sexually abusing as many as 30 youths in Chicago’s suburbs, California and Missouri over 25 years.

He was first priest in America to be declared “sexually violent.”

And here a kicker. When Imech popped his clogs, Bishop R. Daniel Conlon said in a tribute published by Shaw Local:

Bishop Imesch led with conviction and compassion and used his many talents generously.

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