Archdiocese of Chicago Settles Sex Abuse Claim Against Fr. George Clements

The Archdiocese of Chicago has reached an $800,000 settlement over claims of sexual abuse by the late Rev. George Clements, the famed Holy Angels pastor, and four other Chicago-area religious figures, according to lawyers representing the alleged abuse victims. An attorney for Clements’ now 54-year-old alleged victim called Tuesday for Cardinal Blase Cupich to place … Read more

Emails Show Cardinal Cupich Complicit In Mayor’s Draconian Lockdown Policies for Chicago Churches

In May 2020, Mayor Lori Lightfoot was drawing considerable flak over her stance against churches and other places of worship reopening for services amid the COVID-19 pandemic. But she found a behind-the-scenes ally to help her face the backlash from faith communities: Cardinal Blase Cupich, the top Catholic cleric in the Chicago region. Newly obtained … Read more

Defrocked Priest Faces Day of Reckoning

It was the same every night. A list of names was posted on the bedroom door of the Rev. Richard Daschbach, a revered Catholic priest in Asia who’d trained and been ordained decades earlier by his religious order, the Society of the Divine Word, at its Techny grounds near Northbrook. The child at the top … Read more

Cupich Again Tries to ‘Spin’ the Message with ‘Talking Points’ for Priests

After Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich caught heat in August for making remarks regarded as insensitive about the clergy sex abuse crisis, he took the unusual step of ordering Chicago-area Catholic priests to read a prepared statement during weekend masses defending him and insisting his comments had been twisted by the media. With church officials again under fire … Read more