On December 19, 2018, the Attorney General for Illinois administered preceding verdicts exploring Catholic Clergy abuse in Illinois. The exploration took place in six dioceses in Illinois. This was done so that the court could figure out if the accusations were true or not since families came to complain that their children had been assaulted, yet the churches claimed that they had not heard of such cases. The court didn’t believe that the children were lying, so they varied their investigation to get answers and charged those involved.
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The preceding outcomes of the Attorney General include;
- The diocese came open and said that they were aware of the previously mentioned 45 cases of sexual abuse, but they were protecting the people who did it and claimed they didn’t know anything about the cases.
- In August 2018, the Diocese recognized only 185 clergy members as having been credibly accused of the assault.
- The Illinois Diocese has had other cases that they don’t want to disclose.
The investigations also found out that the head of the Illinois Diocese did not look into the assault matter and did not compensate the victims. They just let the situation go and claimed that nothing like an assault happened in their Diocese.
More cases In Illinois
When the church chose not to look into the assault cases, they went against what they preached, and they also went against all the virtues that needed to be followed. Since sexual abuse is a huge offence, the people involved were to be identified and punished for their misconduct. Yet, they were allowed to continue carrying out their duty activities of preaching.
Most churches turned a deaf ear, and the cases have not been looked into for many years. Cardinal Blase Cupich, an archbishop in Chicago, expressed his regrets and said that the church takes all the necessary measures to find the culprits. He also noted that the strength of most victims shed light on the sinful acts happening in the churches.
Worldwide Scandal
There have been numerous clergy sexual abuse worldwide, all involving the catholic church. A survey that was carried out concluded that 1670 catholic churches had been found assaulting over 3600 primarily male minors. Marx said that celibacy should not be a reason why clergy members abuse little children because they are the ones who chose this life.
Another thing that Marx added is that before churches employ and recruit members, they should ask themselves whether weaknesses such as homosexuality and celibacy will be an issue shortly. Once they know this, they will avoid recruiting various members to reduce such incidents.
Conclusion
Clergy sexual abuse has been an issue for many years, and no action is being taken to deal with this issue since the church always protects such members, which are very wrong. The church needs to accept the mistakes made by its members, fire them and allow them to face the law. When the church continues to protect such people, no change will be seen.