What the Attorney General found
In May 2023 the Illinois Attorney General concluded a multi-year investigation into child sexual
abuse by Catholic clergy in Illinois. Across the state’s six dioceses the report identified
451 clerics and religious brothers with substantiated claims, and at least
1,997 children abused between 1950 and 2019.
In the Diocese of Belleville, the report named 43 clerics, 10% of the
statewide total. Fourth highest of the six, and the highest relative to its size.
The diocese covers 28 counties across southern Illinois with about 100 parishes and roughly 70,000 Catholics, the smallest Catholic population of the six. Established in 1887, it is the southernmost Illinois diocese.
What that scale means for finding records
Belleville is the southernmost of the six and has the smallest Catholic population. Its figure of 43 clerics against roughly 70,000 Catholics is proportionally the highest of any Illinois diocese, a smaller institution with a heavier record.
You do not need to have reported the abuse at the time, and no criminal case needs to have
happened. Many of the people named in the Attorney General’s report were never charged.
Questions people ask
The person responsible has died.
A claim can still proceed against the institution that placed them in a position of trust.
I do not remember exact dates.
You are not expected to. These cases are built from the institution’s own records.