In 1995, a priest accused of abusing two boys was welcomed back by parishioners with tears, applause and rejoicing. Since then, Rev. John Calicott has sustained the respect and support of the parishioners at Chicago’s Holy Angels Catholic Church.
On Saturday, parishioners said they remained hopeful that Cardinal Francis George would decide to allow Calicott to remain at Holy Angels, even after the nation’s bishops adopted a new sex-abuse policy that apparently means they will lose him again.
“The parish is grieving based on what they’ve seen” of the new one-strike policy, Tony Vales, 39, said before evening mass. “But the ink is still wet on the bishops’ report on what is to be done, and Cardinal George still has to meet with him.”
Calicott has said he also wishes to stay. “I am not a risk to children,” Calicott said. “I am concerned parishioners will rebel. People will see this as not being a forgiving church.”
Indeed, Rex Alexander, who was an altar boy with Calicott when they both lived in the Ida B. Wells housing complex, said he has been a faithful Catholic since 1955 but would now leave the church.
“We as a parish had asked for him back and now they are going to take him away from us,” Alexander said. “Where’s the forgiveness?”
Nationwide, an unknown number of priests accused of molesting children currently are serving, most without public disclosure, as ministers in parishes, as chaplains at hospitals and nursing homes and in administrative jobs in dioceses.
In the Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago, besides Calicott, three priests work in parishes and three others are assigned to limited ministry working as hospital chaplains and in administrative positions, according to church officials.
The cases against all seven priests were handled during the tenure of the late Cardinal Joseph Bernardin. All are now in mandated monitoring programs that require them to sign a protocol stating they will never be alone with a child.
“The status of these priests will be reviewed in light of the actions in Dallas,” said James Dwyer, spokesman for the archdiocese.
Dwyer said no immediate action would be taken against priests, adding that archdiocese officials want to digest the new policy and establish some form of procedures for reviewing each priest’s situation.
On Saturday, George said he plans to meet with the priests after returning to Chicago. “I think I’ll listen to them first,” he said. “You have to listen first because a man’s whole life is being transformed now, and even his identity is being affected by this, so you have to listen. We have to see what kind of future might be envisaged.”
Church law, like civil law, is set up to follow principles of due process. Priests who are removed from their positions because of sexual misconduct charges can appeal their removal to a canonical tribunal already set up in each archdiocese, George said.
The tribunal is most visible in deciding cases of marriage annulments, but it also handles other issues, he said. The head of the tribunal in the Chicago archdiocese is Rev. Patrick R. Lagges, a canon lawyer, who was unavailable for comment Saturday.
The bishops’ policy seems clear. Bishop Wilton Gregory, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, summed it up Friday: “From this day forward, no one known to have sexually abused a child will work in the Catholic Church in the United States.”
The Chicago archdiocese earlier had determined that the 54-year-old Calicott and the three other parish priests had abused children, although Calicott is the only priest in the archdiocese to be removed and later sent back to his parish.
As for the three other priests, an archdiocese review board, which handles allegations of child sexual abuse by priests, had determined that while the allegations were credible, the circumstances did not warrant the priests’ removal.
“I don’t want to characterize those circumstances because I don’t know what they are,” Dwyer said. “They are conducting regular ministry with some restrictions. They are not supposed to be alone with minors. Ever.”
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Dwyer declined to identify the priests. He said that in the three cases where the priests still worked in parish ministries, parishioners likely did not know who they were. The archdiocese had stripped another six priests this year from ministerial duties after substantiating old allegations of abuse.
The nation’s 300 bishops gathered in Dallas to grapple with how best to deal with a child-sex abuse scandal eroding the church’s credibility and stature among laity.
A bishops’ ad hoc committee on sexual abuse had initially proposed that a priest who abused one child could be reassigned to a parish after attending counseling sessions, appearing before a review board and agreeing to be monitored.
But critics, including some senior church leaders, objected strenuously to that proposal and instead approved a policy that removes abusive priests from any type of ministry.
Prior to the Dallas meeting, George suggested that bishops should have some leeway in deciding whether wayward priests should work in some form of limited ministry away from children.
Speaking of the seven priests in the Chicago archdiocese, George said, “I think they have served well. There haven’t been any further allegations of abuse, they’re connected to people; they’re monitored.
“I think a lot of it would have to be like Calicott, that is, where everybody knows, then people can make their own judgments also about how they are going to relate to this man and not approach him under any kind of ignorance or any feeling they have been deceived.”
In spring 1994, Bernardin had removed Calicott from parish ministry at Holy Angels after archdiocese officials determined he had engaged in sexual misconduct with two 15-year-old boys. The abuse allegations stemmed from separate incidents in 1976 when Calicott was a pastor at St. Ailbe Catholic Church in the 9000 block of South Harper Avenue.
About 1 1/2 years later, Bernardin took an extraordinary step by reinstating Calicott to Holy Angels–a departure of the archdiocese’s policy of reinstating priests accused of sexual misconduct.
Bernardin at the time said he made the exception because two psychological evaluations found that Calicott posed no “significant risk to children” if he continued therapy. He also cited the passage of time since the misconduct and the support of church leaders and parishioners.
Even the two males who were abused supported Calicott’s return to the parish in the 600 block of East Oakwood Boulevard, Bernardin said.
Calicott has built on the work of the charismatic Rev. George Clements, who had instilled the impoverished Kenwood-Oakland neighborhood with a sense of hope and pride.
About 500 families worship at the African-American Catholic church and have embraced Calicott. Regardless of George’s decision, Vales said that support would continue.
“As a Catholic, you are taught growing up about forgiveness,” Vales said. “This parish has forgiven him. We all know what took place . . . and we do not feel he is a threat to children.”
The co-pastor, Rev. Bob Miller, has acted as Calicott’s monitor for the past six years. He described Calicott as a dynamic pastor.
“This is a perfect example of a bad situation that turned out to be a blessing,” Miller said. “Cardinal Bernardin made a hard, difficult decision but it was the right decision.”
Now, that decision is about to be undone.
Calicott, a priest for 27 years, said he was deeply hurt and wanted to meet with Cardinal George.
“I will be absolutely devastated if the church removes me. I have dedicated my life to the church,” Calicott said.
“How can I teach forgiveness if the church is not going to show forgiveness?”