Ms. Madigan stated that in failing to thoroughly investigate allegations of clergy sexual abuse, the Church had failed in its moral duty to give survivors, parishioners, and the public an accurate account of all of its priests’ sexually inappropriate conduct in Illinois. She asserted that the failure to investigate meant that the Church had not made efforts to determine whether the priests’ conduct was concealed or ignored by superiors.
The dioceses have identified 185 priests whom they believe were accused by credible people of sexually abusing kids. However, they had also received accusations against at least 500 additional priests, and those accusations were not thoroughly investigated or brought to authorities. Often, a diocese would excuse itself by arguing that a priest was dead or had already quit at the time that an accusation was initially reported to the diocese. Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich gave a statement expressing the Church's regret for its failure to address the problem of clergy sexual abuse.