Revered, famous and iconic Chicago Catholic priest, Rev. George H. Clements, who has been credibly accused of childhood sex abuse, is part of an $800,000.00 mediated settlement with the Archdiocese of Chicago along with three other credibly accused Chicago priests and a sexually abusive Irish Christian Brother who served in more than one Chicago Catholic High School
Although it is past time to, why hasn’t Cardinal Blase Cupich placed the name of Fr. George H. Clements on the Archdiocese of Chicago website as a credibly accused sexual abuser?
All five (5) courageous childhood clergy sexual abuse victims are represented by Attorney Mitchell Garabedian of Boston, MA, who will appear by ZOOM LINK
MEDIA RELEASE – MONDAY, APRIL 25, 2022
What
A press conference announcing a mediated settlement of $800,000.00 between five (5) courageous childhood clergy sexual abuse victims and the Archdiocese of Chicago, IL, who were sexually abused by:
Rev. George H. Clements while assigned at Holy Angels Parish, Chicago, who was the subject of a television movie and highly praised for his social activism, adoption of children, and more than 50-year ministry as a Catholic priest
Br. Edward C. Courtney, CFC, an Irish Christian Brother sexual abuser who was stationed at Leo High School, Chicago (and abused a child there) and St. Laurence High School, Burbank, IL
Rev. Joseph L. Fitzharris, who engaged in childhood sexual abuse while assigned at St. Fidelis Parish in Chicago
Rev. Daniel M. Holihan, who engaged in childhood sexual abuse while assigned at St. Aloysius Parish, Chicago
Rev. Michael Weston, who engaged in childhood sexual abuse while assigned at St. Julie Billiart’s Parish in Tinley Park, Il
When
Tuesday, April 26, 2022 at 11:30 am Chicago time (Attorney Garabedian will appear by ZOOM LINK)
Where
On the public sidewalk outside the headquarters of the Archdiocese of Chicago, IL, at 835 North Rush Street, Chicago, IL 60611-2033
Who
Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D., Co-founder and President of Road to Recovery, Inc., a non-profit charity based in New Jersey that assists victims of sexual abuse and their families and who is a former Irish Christian Brother (23 years) and former priest of the Archdiocese of Newark, New Jersey (11 years). He was ordained by former Archbishop Theodore McCarrick. He is also a victim of clergy sexual abuse.
Why
(See above)
Contacts
Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D., Road to Recovery, Inc. – 862-368-2800
Attorney Mitchell Garabedian, Boston MA – (office – 617-523-6250) – (cell – 617-388-5252)
(Portrayed by actor Stanley Tucci in the 2016 Academy Award-winning Best Picture “Spotlight”)
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FOX 32 CHICAGO
Chicago Archdiocese reaches settlement over sex abuse claims against Rev. George Clements
By Mike Flannery Published April 26, 2022 5:06PM ReligionFOX 32 Chicago
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Chicago Archdiocese reaches $800,000 settlement over sex abuse claims
Before Rev. George Clements died, Hollywood made a movie about him. But now, the Chicago Archdiocese is paying more than $100,000 to a man who claims Father Clements abused him during the 1970s.
CHICAGO – Before Rev. George Clements died, Hollywood made a movie about him. But now, the Chicago Archdiocese is paying more than $100,000 to a man who claims Father Clements abused him during the 1970s.
Shortly before he died in 2019, Clements was accused of sexually abusing a minor 45 years earlier. The state of Illinois ruled that claim “unfounded,” but a Boston lawyer says his client has now received a settlement in the “low six figures.”
“My client was sexually abused for approximately five years approximately 1974 to 1979, when he was seven to 12-years-old. He was sexually abused in the rectory of Holy Angels Church, in Father Clements’s car and on a camping trip,” said attorney Mitchell Garabedian.
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Father Clements was among five local Catholic clerics identified Tuesday by Garabedian. He said the Chicago Archdiocese paid a total of $800,000 to victims of the four priests and a Catholic brother. Two of the men are dead, including Father Clements, who gained national fame for his work on behalf of African-American males growing up without fathers.
Garabedian reports his unnamed client said when he told his own mother that Clements was abusing him, she locked him in a closet.
“When he told his aunt about being sexually abused by Father Clements, his mother once again locked him in the closet and said, ‘don’t ever speak about Father Clements in such a bad manner.’ Father Clements had everybody fooled. He was a criminal. And where were the supervisors,” Garabedian said.
The lawyer said each of these cases was beyond the statute of limitations, too late for a lawsuit to be filed. The archdiocese investigated and paid the money anyway.
A spokeswoman said Cardinal Blase Cupich does not comment on claims or settlements.
ABC7 Eyewitness News
Chicago Archdiocese names Father George Clements as abuser in $800K priest sex abuse settlement
Father George Clements allegedly abused 7-year-old boy at Holy Angels Parish in 1970sBy Michelle GallardoTuesday, April 26, 2022 8:31PMabout:blankEMBED <>More Videos <iframe width=”476″ height=”267″ src=”https://abc7chicago.com/video/embed/?pid=11794119″ frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen></iframe>
An Archdiocese of Chicago settlement names Father George Clements as the alleged sexual abuser of a 7-year-old boy in the 1970s.CHICAGO (WLS) — A settlement has been reached between the Archdiocese of Chicago and five people who accused five separate priests of sexual abuse, including a high-profile priest who passed away in 2019.
At the time of his death in November 2019, Father George Clements was under a cloud of suspicion following two allegations of sexual abuse against minors, leading the former pastor of Holy Angels Parish in Bronzeville to step aside.
RELATED: Archdiocese of Chicago removes 3 priests amid investigations into ‘inappropriate’ conduct
He died before the Archdiocese’s Independent Review Board left one case undetermined and didn’t find reason to believe abuse occurred in the other.
On Tuesday, a legal settlement was announced that for the first time names Father Clements as the alleged sexual abuser of a now 54-year-old Chicago-area man who said he was 7 years old when the abuse started.
“My client was sexually abused for five years, from approximately 1974 to 1979,” attorney Mitchell Garabedian said. “He was sexually abused in the rectory of Holy Angels Church, in Father Clement’s car and on a camping trip.”
The $800,000 dollar settlement was reached in February and includes five separate cases of alleged abuse that are said to have taken place in the Chicago area in the 1960s and 1970s.
In addition to Clements, the settlement named Father Daniel Holihan, Father Joseph Fitzharris, Father Michael Weston and Brother Edward Courtney. All are either deceased or no longer in active ministry.
SEE ALSO | Former Chicago priest Daniel McCormack deposed in child sex abuse lawsuits
A press conference held on the steps of the Chicago Archdiocese Tuesday called on Cardinal Blase Cupich to include Father Clements on their list of publicly-named clergy with substantiated allegations of sexual abuse against minors.
“Fitzharris is there. Holihan is there. Weston is there. Why not Clements?” said Robert Hoatson, Road to Recovery co-founder. “This happened in February, this settlement. He’s had all this time to place his name on the website.”
“The time for hiding and secrecy is over,” Garabedian said. “It’s time to be transparent so the victims, the survivors, can try to heal.”
To be clear, the legal settlement reached between the Archdiocese and the victims attorneys specifically includes a clause that specifies there is no admission of wrongdoing. But victim advocates say a monetary settlement in any form is the only avenue for the accusers who come forward outside the legal statute of limitations.
For its part, the Archdiocese said that it does not comment on lawsuits, claims or settlements. But they added, that under current policy, Clements name will not be added to their list of clergy with substantiated allegations against them because he died before his case could be evaluated by their review board.
Click on Link for Video interview with Dr. Robert M. Hoatson, President and Co-founder of Road to Recovery
WBBM – 780 AM 105.9 FM
Click on Link for Audio interview with Dr. Robert M. Hoatson, President and Co-founder of Road to Recovery
CHICAGO SUN TIMES
Archdiocese of Chicago settles sex abuse claim against the Rev. George Clements: lawyer
Clements, who died in 2019, was a pastor at Holy Angels and also marched with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
By Stefano Esposito Apr 26, 2022, 5:45pm EDT
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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 Clements on the archdiocese’s public list of “credibly accused priests.”
“The hiding has to stop. The secrecy has to stop,” Boston-based attorney Mitch Garabedian told reporters.
The settlement — a copy of which was emailed to the Chicago Sun-Times — does not include any admission of wrongdoing on the part of the archdiocese.
The settlement also references Brother Edward C. Courtney, who served at all three Chicago-area Irish Christian Brothers high schools — Brother Rice on the Far South Side, St. Laurence in Burbank and Leo on the South Side — in the 1960s and 1970s as well as order-run schools in Michigan and Washington. The Chicago Sun-Times reported last year that Courtney has been accused of being a “serial sexual predator” responsible for abusing more than 50 children, according to records, interviews and news accounts.
Courtney was to “have no contact with Rice, Leo or Laurence in any way, shape or form,” a leader of the order wrote in the 1970s after a series of abuse accusations.
A spokesman for the archdiocese declined to comment Tuesday, saying the church does not comment on litigation.
Clements died in November 2019. He was a longtime civil rights advocate from the city’s South Side. He marched with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in Chicago, Alabama and Mississippi.
He was also known as the first Catholic priest to adopt a child and, later, three more.
In August 2019, Clements was accused of sexually abusing a minor in 1974 while pastor of Holy Angels in Bronzeville. At the time, Cupich asked Clements “to step aside from ministry” pending the outcome of an investigation.
At the time, Clements told the Sun-Times the allegation was “totally unfounded.”
The status of that internal investigation is unclear, but Clements is not included on the archdiocesan list of credibly accused priests. That list was last updated in June 2021.
Garabedian said Tuesday that Clements abused his client “at least 20 times” between 1974 to 1979. The alleged abuse, occurring when the victim was between 7 and 12 years old, took place in the church rectory, in Clements’ car and on a camping trip, Garabedian said.
The lawyer described the alleged abuse as “the worst you can imagine.”
“When my client reported the abuse to his mother, his mother locked him in the closet and said, ‘Don’t ever talk about Father Clements like that again,’” Garabedian said.
The lawyer said the settlement was reached in February.
Garabedian’s client, who lives in the Chicago area, was not made available Tuesday. But Garabedian said the client was interviewed by archdiocesan lawyers last year.
Legal settlements were also reached involving allegations against several other Chicago-area priests, all of whom are either dead or no longer in active ministry.
