“Someone who says ‘I’m against abortion but says I am in favor of the death penalty’ is not really pro-life,” Pope Leo XIV said. “Someone who says that ‘I’m against abortion, but I’m in agreement with the inhuman treatment of immigrants in the United States,’ I don’t know if that’s pro-life.”

Survivors of clergy sexual abuse amplified calls Tuesday for a global zero-tolerance policy from the new pope’s American hometown and raised questions about Leo XIV’s history of dealing with accused priests from Chicago to Australia.

“We’re certainly going to mourn the loss of a truly wonderful leader, someone who was a great example, who lived their faith in word and action,” Auxiliary Bishop Lawrence Sullivan said. “But it’s also a time to really be grateful for his phenomenal leadership.”

In a filing in Cook County’s circuit court, the archdiocese accused the unnamed defendants of a “quid pro quo” scheme in which they allegedly peddled false claims of abuse in order to extort money from the church.

The controversial program known as Invest In Kids took donations from people and businesses. It used that money to subsidize student tuition for low-income families at private and trade schools before expiring last year. Critics of the program say it takes away resources from the public schools the majority of state children attend. 

More than 450 Catholic clerics and religious brothers abused nearly 2,000 children across six Illinois dioceses, according to a multi-year investigation from the state’s attorney general’s office, a total significantly higher than what the church itself had reported previously.

“At best, the cardinal’s claims of being blindsided are misleading,” Attorney General Kwame Raoul said. “At worst, they are more of the same, a continuation of the church’s decades-long pattern of turning a blind eye and covering up allegations of child sex abuse to the detriment of survivors.”

The results of that investigation, published by Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul, represents what he called the first comprehensive accounting of child sex abuse by members of the Catholic clergy in Illinois.

Next month, a wave of Chicago-area Catholic church consolidations will take place, merging parishes as part of the Archdiocese of Chicago’s “Renew My Church” initiative. Among them will be five churches in and around Bronzeville.

The Rev. Michael Pfleger, cleared by an Archdiocese of Chicago investigation into claims that he sexually abused several boys decades ago, returned to the pulpit of his longtime church on Sunday for the first time in five months. 

Cardinal Blase Cupich reinstated the Rev. Michael Pfleger as senior pastor of St. Sabina Catholic Church after an investigation of allegations of sexual abuse of a minor more than 40 years ago “concluded that there is insufficient reason to suspect Father Pfleger is guilty of these allegations.”

After the first allegations surfaced in January, the Archdiocese of Chicago temporarily removed Michael Pfleger to investigate, leading to fierce backlash from parishioners trying to clear his name. They’ve flooded the archdiocese’s phone lines and staged rallies. They’ve also challenged the accusers’ accounts.

The Archdiocese of Chicago said Wednesday it plans to publicly list the names of “credibly accused” priests belonging to religious orders after questions over the archdiocese’s transparency.

Cardinal Blase Cupich asked the Rev. Michael Pfleger to step down as senior pastor of St. Sabina Catholic Church while the Archdiocese of Chicago investigates an allegation of sexual abuse of a minor more than 40 years ago. 

The Archdiocese of Chicago has announced schools will have the option to transition to remote learning after Thanksgiving, but says it’s not yet clear how many schools will choose to do that. 

CPS will start the school year with an all-remote learning plan, but Catholic schools in the city and suburbs are taking a different approach. How will the school system keep everyone safe, and are teachers and parents on board?