Support group for clerical abuse survivors files complaint to Vatican against Paprocki

A support group for persons assaulted by ministers and priests has filed a formal complaint to the Vatican against Springfield Catholic Bishop Thomas John Paprocki over the diocese's handling of past child sex abuse allegations.

David Clohessy, the former national director of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), characterized the diocese's reaction to such claims as "a story of failed leadership."

Clohessy said Paprocki, who became bishop in Springfield in 2010, has continued his predecessors’ "secrecy and callousness."

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Clohessy, a clerical abuse survivor, was accompanied by three other survivors in front of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception Thursday afternoon. Two survivors from the Metro East area were speaking out for the first time publicly.

Later, they chalked the names of some of credibly accused priests from the Springfield Diocese on the sidewalk in front of the cathedral.

Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul's investigative report from May provided 50 pages of recommendations to bishops detailing how they could better deal with abuse and cover-up, but "as best we can tell, Paprocki has not adopted even one of these."

Clohessy said Paprocki is the only one of the Illinois bishops who refuses to reveal the parishes and other sites where child molesting clerics have served.

The AG investigation found 451 Catholic priests and religious brothers abused nearly 2,000 children in the state's six diocese over seven decades. Before the investigation, dioceses publicly listed only 103 substantiated child sex abusers.

The formal complaint was sent in a letter addressed to Cardinal Christophe Pierre, the papal nuncio in Washington, D.C. Pierre is Pope Francis' official representative to the Catholic Church in the U.S.

Andrew Hansen, a spokesman for the Springfield Diocese, said he was unaware of Thursday's protest.

Hansen said Paprocki as of Thursday afternoon had not seen the complaint.

"What some clergy in the Church committed against innocent victim survivors was beyond shameful and disgraceful," Hansen said in a statement to The State Journal-Register. "We cannot undo these horrific damages of the past, but our diocese will continue to be fully committed to ensuring we do all we can to prevent abuse from happening again.

"The changes our diocese enacted have been effective as we are not aware of a single incident of sexual abuse of a minor by clergy alleged to have occurred in this diocese in nearly 20 years. As we have said in the past, anyone with new information about clergy sexual abuse, we encourage them to contact local civil authorities and the Diocese of Springfield, so appropriate measures can be taken."

The Springfield Diocese is made up of 28 counties stretching across the middle part of the state.

Contact Steven Spearie: 217-622-1788; sspearie@sj-r.com; X, twitter.com/@StevenSpearie.

This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: SNAP files complaint to the Vatican against Springfield Bishop Paprocki