Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul Tuesday issued a report on a multi-year investigation into child sex abuse by members of Illinois' Catholic clergy.
The investigation started under Attorney General Lisa Madigan and covers 70 years. One statistic noted by the Attorney General: Prior to the investigation, the Catholic church had publicly listed 103 substantiated child sex abusers.
This report lists 451 clerics including Bernard Tomaszewski ordained in 1924. Tomaszewski served seven locations including St. Hyacinth's in La Salle and St. Valentine in Peru. The reported abuse happened in 1946, but does not list where.
The Attorney General's report says he was removed from his position in 1946 and died later. Raoul's report has 50 pages of recommended policies that dioceses enact to improve handling of future allegations of child sexual abuse.
The Peoria Diocese responded by saying,” The steps the church in the U.S put into place twenty years ago have gone a long way to address the scourge of sexual abuse. The Diocese reports all allegations of abuse to civil authorities. To the Diocese's knowledge, there is not a single priest of the Diocese with a substantiated allegation who is currently in ministry or who has not been reported to authorities.