Ex-priest, who left after sex abuse accusations, settlements, not among 451 predatory clergy Kwame Raoul’s investigation turned up
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John D. Murphy, a former Catholic priest and member of the Augustinian religious order in the Chicago area, was accused in lawsuits two decades ago of sexually assaulting numerous children.
More than a dozen accusers ended up settling legal claims with the Augustinians — who oversee St. Rita High School on the Southwest Side and Providence Catholic High School in New Lenox — and the Archdiocese of Chicago over accusations against Murphy, according to interviews and records.
So why isn’t Murphy included among the 451 Catholic priests and brothers named a week and a half ago by Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul in a massive report that found the archdiocese and the rest of the Catholic church hierarchy in Illinois vastly underreported clergy members’ sexual abuse of children?
The attorney general’s office, which found nearly 2,000 child victims in Illinois by Catholic priests and brothers, won’t discuss why.
Unlike some other Catholic orders, the Augustinians — whose stated aim is, in part, to “help the restless find happiness in God” — have not made public a list of its clergy members deemed to have faced credible accusations of child rape.
That’s despite Cardinal Blase Cupich having demanded for several years that Catholic orders — which are semi-autonomous but must seek the cardinal’s approval to operate in the archdiocese, his geographic territory — come clean to him about all accusations against their members of sexual abuse.
Content retrieved from: https://chicago.suntimes.com/2023/6/2/23744889/serial-child-molester-john-murphy-a-former-priest-augustinian-chicago-saint-rita-cupich-archdiocese.
