Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan says her investigation in to priest sex abuse has discovered more names of abusers than were previously disclosed. Madigan asked for records from all the Illinois Catholic dioceses after the bombshell report from a Pennsylvania grand jury.
Late Wednesday night the Archdiocese issued a press release, identifying new names of priests or deacons with substantiated allegations of abuse not previously disclosed.
Cardinal Blase Cupich weighed in this week on the crisis and whether bishops should be investigated.
“No one can be exempt,” he said.
In late August, Madigan initiated a new statewide investigation asking for all of the Illinois Catholic bishops to open their files.
“What we’ve seen are varying levels of cooperation with our investigation,” she said. “I wouldn’t characterize it as totally transparent because when we were reviewing the files of the Chicago Archdiocese, we did find individuals, members of the clergy where it appears there were substantiated claims of child sexual abuse but those individuals names had not been released.”
Late Wednesday the Chicago Archdiocese disclosed 10 new names of priests or deacons — not previously known — all of them are dead. Rockford has 11 new names and Peoria three new names of priests with substantiated abuse claims.