[Peace-discuss] N-G: At least 16 priests with area ties on Illinois list of alleged sex offenders

[Robert Naiman]

I wonder that the Illinois Catholic Bishops dare to be so vocal against
repeal of the parental notification law on abortion at the same time that
this is coming out. Shouldn't they be keeping their heads down?

http://www.news-gazette.com/news/local/2019-03-21/least-16-priests-with-area-ties-illinois-list-alleged-sex-offenders.html

At least 16 priests with area ties on Illinois list of alleged sex offenders
Thu, 03/21/2019 - 7:00am | Ben Zigterman
<http://www.news-gazette.com/author/ben-zigterman>

CHAMPAIGN — At least 16 priests with area connections are among the nearly
400 Catholic clergy members and church staff in Illinois named in a report
— released Wednesday by a Minnesota-based law firm — that accuses them of
sexual misconduct.

All had been previously mentioned on lists released by the Joliet, Peoria
and Springfield dioceses, but Wednesday's report by attorney Jeff Anderson
is the largest list of accused clergy in Illinois and includes where each
priest served.

It comes after a report in December by former Attorney General Lisa
Madigan, which found that Illinois dioceses had only publicly identified
185 accused clergy out of the 690 it had been made aware were alleged to
have committed sexual abuse.

The new report accuses the Illinois dioceses of "orchestrating an
institutional cover-up of enormous magnitude" by transferring and retaining
alleged perpetrators.

The Springfield, Peoria and Joliet dioceses all issued statements Wednesday
about the report, explaining why some names on the list aren't on their own
publicly available lists, either because they never received allegations or
found them to be unsubstantiated or not credible.

"The report is an impressive professional marketing brochure, but it does
not represent, as Mr. Anderson suggests, a thorough and diligent review of
the publicly available facts, and it is highly misleading and
irresponsible," said Andrew Hansen, spokesman for the Springfield diocese.

The report includes former Champaign Mayor Robert Dodd, who served parishes
in Highland and Pana in the 1960s before leaving the priesthood in 1971.

He was mayor from 1983 to '87, and in 1994, Dodd was named in a child sex
abuse lawsuit, according to the report. His name was also on the
Springfield diocese's list of clergy with substantiated cases of sexual
abuse of a minor.

Dodd died in 2013 in Champaign.

The other local priests accused in the report include:

Gordon Pillon. He has been accused by two people of sexually abusing them
as children. He joined the ministry in California in the 1980s before
joining the Peoria diocese in the early '90s. He worked at St. John's
Catholic Chapel in Champaign in 2000 and at Sacred Heart in Farmer City in
2003. He was placed on leave in 2007 after the allegations were made.

Lee Ryan. He served at St. Edmund in Watseka from 1992 to 2010, when he was
accused of child sex abuse in 1974 at Providence Catholic High School in
New Lenox and removed from ministry. He temporarily returned to the
ministry in 2012, but was removed again later that year, according to the
report. Ryan died in 2016.

William Virtue. He was at Sacred Heart in Farmer City in 2002 and had moved
on to the parish in Harmon the following year. The first accusations of
child sex abuse against him were made in 1984. He allegedly repeatedly
abused a 10-year-old boy in Mokena, according to a lawsuit filed in 2006,
after which he was removed from the ministry in the Peoria diocese. After
reports surfaced of him working in the Rockford diocese, he was later
removed from all public ministry in 2009, according to the report.

Jerry Pilon. He served at St. Anthony's in Hoopeston from 1993 to 1998. In
2009, he was accused of sexually abusing a child about 12 years earlier.
After the allegation was made, Pilon was removed from the ministry,
according to the report.

Paul Dinan. He served at St. Mary's of Paxton from 1945 to 1954, 1974 to
1975 and 1979 to '80. He lived in Paxton during retirement from 1987 until
his death in 1996. After he died, allegations of sexual abuse of a minor
were made, according to the report.

William Iserman. He served at St. Anthony's in Hoopeston in 1960 and was
removed from the ministry in 1993 "due to allegations of abuse of a minor,"
according to the Peoria diocese. He then lived in Urbana from 1993 to 1994,
according to the report. Iserman died in 1998.

Anthony Meis. He served St. Joseph in Cabery from 1981 to 1988. He then
served at Saints Mary and Joseph Church in Chebanse, where he allegedly
sexually abused a child and then left in 1994, according to the report. He
died in 2015.

Thomas Miller. He worked at Schlarman High School in Danville from 1984 to
1988 and then at two different parishes in Peoria. In 2004, he was accused
of sexually abusing a minor in 1979 while at a parish in Bloomington. More
accusations followed, and in 2004, Miller was placed on leave. He was
laicized in 2006.

Phillip Dedera. He served at St. Mary's in Paxton from 1986 to 1988. He was
removed from the ministry in 2002 after allegations of abuse from the 1970s
were made public. Another man came forward in 2006, accusing Dedera of
sexually abusing him more than 100 times at the age of 11 or 12. Another
filed a lawsuit alleging Dedera offered him marijuana to help him forget an
assault by another priest.

Ronald Roth. He was the director of the Good Shepherd Apostolic House of
Prayer in Urbana in 1977. He allegedly sexually abused three boys and a
girl when he worked at parishes in New Mexico. In 1993, he was removed from
the ministry after the Peoria diocese became aware of the lawsuit. Roth
died in 2009.

Oliver Walsh. He served at St. Peter's in Piper City from 1972 to 1975.
After he died in 1975, he was accused of sexual abuse of a minor. The
Joliet diocese has called the allegations credible, but they remain
unresolved.

Robert Creager. He served at Immaculate Conception near Pesotum from 1970
to 1974. He was removed from the ministry in 2002 after being accused of
sexual misconduct with minors. Creager died in 2008.

Francis Engels. He served at St. John in Champaign from 1963 to 1965. After
being accused in 1993 of sexually abusing children in the 1970s and '80s,
Engels acknowledged the encounter, but said the accuser had been over 18
years old. He was removed from the ministry that year. In 2005, Engels was
sentenced to 10 years in a Wisconsin prison following a civil lawsuit
alleging abuse in both Illinois and Wisconsin.

Walter Breuning. He worked at St. Patrick's in Urbana from 1955 to 1959.
Breuning was removed from the ministry in 2002 after allegations that he
sexually abused a child 20 to 40 years earlier. Breuning has been named in
three civil lawsuits, including one filed by two brothers claiming they
were sexually abused in the late '60s to early '70s. Breuning died in 2009,
according to the report.

Bernard Tomaszewski. He served at Our Lady of Lourdes in Gibson City from
1925 to 1926, at St. Elizabeth's in 1935, in Tolono in 1936, in Colfax
Township in 1937 and at St. Boniface Church in Seymour from 1938 to 1941.
He was removed from the ministry in 1946 and is on the Peoria diocese's
list of priests removed due to allegations of abuse of a minor. The report
said Tomaszewski is believed to be dead.
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