Crime & Law
New Lawsuits Against Chicago Archdiocese Allege Widespread Sexual Abuse at South Side Parish
Attorney Steven Hart speaks during a press conference announcing new lawsuits against the Archdiocese of Chicago on Oct. 13, 2026. (WTTW News)
Chicago attorneys have filed more than a half dozen lawsuits alleging the Archdiocese of Chicago knew its priests were running a “sex ring” for decades at a South Side parish, but did nothing to stop it from happening.
Attorneys with the law firm of Hart McLaughlin & Eldridge accused the archdiocese of allowing priests to “operate a network of child sexual predatory behavior” at the former Holy Angels Parish.
“Holy Angels was not a sanctuary for children,” Steven Hart, the firm’s founding partner, said at a press conference Tuesday. “It was a sanctuary for predators — sexual predators — protected by the Chicago Archdiocese.”
A spokesperson for the archdiocese declined to comment on the lawsuits Tuesday.
The lawsuits allege children between the ages of 5 and 14 were sexually abused at the parish between 1969 and 2002.
The allegations were made in seven lawsuits the firm filed Tuesday in Cook County Circuit Court, which accused the Rev. George Clements, the Rev. Paul Smith, the Rev. John Calicott and the Rev. Kenneth Brigham — all deceased Chicago priests — of carrying out “the most disgusting acts of sexual abuse.”
Calicott has been accused of abusing at least seven children, and attorneys on Tuesday claimed he used Boy Scout meetings he led at the parish as “hunting grounds” to find victims and abuse them on an almost weekly basis.
Clements, a famed Civil Rights leader who served at Holy Angels for years, was previously accused of abuse following his death in 2019. In 2022, the archdiocese announced an $800,000 settlement as part of those claims.
Attorney Sean O’Malley on Tuesday called Clements an “absolute imposter” and possibly “the most prolific child molester in the history of the Archdiocese of Chicago.”
According to O’Malley, the archdiocese granted Clements control of Holy Angels in 1969 and allowed him to “systematically divorce” the parish from its oversight and control. Despite “outrageous and obvious red flags,” which the archdiocese failed to investigate, O’Malley claimed Clements turned Holy Angels into a “hot bed, a safe haven and incubator” for child sex abuse.
Attorneys on Tuesday said they’ve spent more than two years analyzing evidence, conducting hundreds of interviews and reviewing thousands of documents. O’Malley said that information makes it very clear that George Clements was the “spearhead of a surge of widespread child sex abuse” occurring at predominantly Black parishes in Chicago throughout the 1980s and 1990s.
“He served as their model,” O’Malley said. “He served as their protector. The archdiocese knew this.”
Attorneys on Tuesday said that through the lawsuits they’re seeking accountability and to find out what archdiocese officials knew, and when they knew it. They said they expect to file multiple future lawsuits stemming from the alleged Holy Angels abuse.
