If you were a student or a kid in the parish under Father Anthony Vader, we believe you.

If you grew up Catholic on the South Side any time between 1952 and 1997, there's a fair chance you knew him, or knew of him. Forty-five years, three parishes: Holy Cross in Woodlawn from 1952, St. Laurence from 1964, and then Holy Name of Mary in Morgan Park, his from January 1968 until he retired in 1997, which is where most people who find this page knew him. The Archdiocese of Chicago's position is that nobody said a word about him to the chancery until the fall of 2002. Since then 13 people have reported him, by the Illinois Attorney General's count, the Archdiocese's own board substantiated claim after claim going back to 1955, and in July 2005 Cardinal George's decree found him guilty under church law. If some part of your childhood ran through one of those parishes, this is for you.

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This applies to you no matter what

He is dead, since July 2011. The case you'd bring was never going to be against him anyway. It's against the Archdiocese of Chicago, which ordained him, assigned him to three parishes and their schools over 45 years, and kept him on as pastor emeritus at Holy Name of Mary until the allegations came in.
Nobody ever charged him. The Archdiocese says it passed the 2002 allegations to the Cook County State's Attorney, and nothing we've read shows a charge after that. A civil case doesn't need one.
You're thinking it was the '50s, or the '60s, who's going to care. The Archdiocese's own review board cared, for what that's worth: in 2003 it substantiated a claim from 1955, in 2004 one from 1960, and in 2007 one from the mid-'60s, so on this name old isn't the exception. It's the normal case.
You were a girl in the school, not an altar boy. Every substantiated allegation in the Archdiocese's released file came from a girl who knew him through Holy Cross, St. Laurence or the grammar school. The Attorney General's entry, for what it's worth, runs to 1995.
You were at Holy Name of Mary in the 1990s, long after the years most people associate with him. The Attorney General's entry carries a 1994 to 1995 Chicago report, one the Archdiocese itself supplied. That changes the deadline picture, and we get to it below.
You are asking for a sister, a mother, a friend who can't do this herself. Reach out anyway.

Father Anthony Vader: what the public record says, and when

None of what follows is ours. It's the Archdiocese of Chicago's own file, released in November 2014, the Illinois Attorney General, the Archdiocese's list, and the reporters who read them, and every line links to where it came from. Vader was never charged, never tried, never convicted. A review board finding is that board's finding, a cardinal's decree is church law and not a court's, and a name on a list is that list's opinion, which is the Archdiocese's own word for it. The word for all of it is allegation.

July 1952 to January 1997

Ordained May 1, 1952. The Archdiocese's priest vitae card, the first thing in his released file, gives the assignments: assistant pastor at Holy Cross on 65th Street from July 8, 1952 to June 25, 1964; assistant at St. Laurence on Dorchester Avenue from June 25, 1964 to January 30, 1968; then Holy Name of Mary on 112th Street, administrator from January 30, 1968, pastor from March 13, 1970, until he retired on January 31, 1997 and moved into the Sacred Heart Mission House on Avers Avenue as pastor emeritus. A 1987 appointment to a pastors' review board is also on the card. Holy Cross and St. Laurence have both since closed. Archdiocese of Chicago file on Vader, released November 2014 (via BishopAccountability.org).

Fall 2002 to February 2003

By the Archdiocese's account, its first allegation against him arrived in the fall of 2002: sexual misconduct with minors, "more than 40 years ago," at Holy Cross. Its review board found reasonable cause in a first-stage review, and on February 9 Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Perry wrote to Holy Name of Mary and Sacred Heart Mission that Vader had been withdrawn from all ministry, was living "in a monitored and restricted setting," and that the allegations "have been reported to the Cook County States Attorney." The letter also said the Archdiocese had received no other allegations. The Sun-Times counted him as the 14th Chicago priest removed in a year. Bishop Perry's letters and the Sun-Times clipping, in the released file.

February 5, 2004

A year into his removal, Cardinal George issued a decree barring him from the property of Sacred Heart Mission and from the whole territory of Holy Name of Mary parish. The decree's own recitals say why: "credible reports" of his continued presence at Mass at both places, at the rectories, at parish functions. The Attorney General's narrative fills in the rest. He was seen in clerical garb against instructions, presided at a public Mass, admitted "signing parish checks," and was permitted a month in the Philippines anyway; the Archdiocese warned that the Cardinal might "have Fr. Vader arrested for trespassing." The narrative also records a racial slur he used, more than once, about his own former parish, and refused to stop using when asked. Illinois Attorney General, Vader narrative.

July 22, 2005

Cardinal George's penal decree. Having weighed the evidence and heard Vader's advocate, he wrote that he had "reached moral certitude" that Vader was guilty of the church-law offense of abuse of a minor under sixteen; that the accusers' memories of events decades old might be inexact in detail, but "the fact that the child was abused is accurate." He did not dismiss Vader from the priesthood. He removed his faculties for five years, forbade him from Holy Name of Mary and Sacred Heart Mission, and left him free to say Mass alone in his room. The faculties were never restored. Cardinal George's decree of July 22, 2005, in the released file.

March 20, 2006

Just over three years after pulling him from ministry, the Archdiocese put his name on its public list, the clergy with substantiated allegations of sexual abuse of a minor, and there it has stayed. Which sounds like more than it is, and the list itself says so: a substantiated finding "represents the opinion of the Archdiocese, and is not a legal judgment or determination." Still. He has never come off it, and the version dated February 10, 2025 still has his row, four assignments (Holy Cross, St. Laurence, Holy Name of Mary, Sacred Heart Mission House) and three dates, limited ministry with restrictions and monitoring in November 2002, removed from public ministry in February 2003, deceased July 2011. Archdiocese of Chicago list (PDF).

November 6, 2014

The Archdiocese released his personnel file, 1,179 pages, one of 36 priests' files that day. Patch read it: four women, two of them sisters at Holy Cross in the mid-1950s. The file's own 2010 summary lists seven allegations: 1955 to 1956 and 1958 at Holy Cross, substantiated by the review board in 2003; 1960 at Holy Cross, substantiated in 2004; 1963 to 1966 at St. Laurence, substantiated in 2007; 1969, a girl from the grammar school, substantiated in 2009; and two more, one from a woman who saw his name on television in 2005, that were never formalized. Vader denied the ones put to him, including the one that's hardest to read, from a woman who said that back in 1993 she'd asked him whether he remembered touching her and he'd answered yes. Patch, November 7, 2014.

May 23, 2023

"A serial predator." That is the Illinois Attorney General's phrase, in the narrative on him written from the Archdiocese's own records, and the narrative says the review board substantiated at least five claims. The entry itself, in the Report on Catholic Clergy Child Sex Abuse in Illinois, is drier: Anthony Joseph Vader, ordained 1952, one of the Archdiocese of Chicago clerics with substantiated allegations, 13 reported survivors, and the Archdiocese's own dates, first report 2002, limited ministry 2002, removed 2003, died 2011. The places and years are the part to read slowly if you're trying to place yourself. The 1950s, place unknown; Deerfield, 1955 to 1958 and 1960 to 1961; Chicago, 1958 and 1963 to 1967; and, the one that surprises people, Chicago again in 1994 to 1995. Illinois Attorney General, report entry.

We checked this on September 13, 2026, and the newest thing in it is from May 23, 2023. When something new gets filed or decided, it goes in here within 72 hours, with the link.

Who answers for what Father Vader is accused of

The Archdiocese of Chicago, on paper the Catholic Bishop of Chicago, a corporation sole, with the parish named beside it, whichever of the three it was. It ordained him, assigned him, and ran the schools where, by its own file, every substantiated claim began. The knowledge question on this name is different from some others, and we'll say so plainly: the Archdiocese's position, on the Attorney General's record and in its own February 2003 letters, is that it heard nothing until the fall of 2002. What the file shows after that is the part a lawyer reads closely. The February 2003 letters said there were no other allegations. Within months there were, and they kept coming; the board substantiated claims from 1955, 1958, 1960, the mid-'60s and 1969, one after another, the last of them in 2009. Removed from ministry in 2003, he kept turning up at Holy Name of Mary and Sacred Heart Mission for a year, signing checks, until the Cardinal had to decree him off the property. And the 1994 to 1995 report the Archdiocese handed the Attorney General puts conduct inside his last years as pastor, when he was answerable to the chancery every day.

The priest himself is beside the point. He died on July 15, 2011, at Holy Family Villa in Palos Park, and Illinois does not let a punitive claim follow a man into his grave, so these cases are pleaded against what the Archdiocese knew and did, never against a dead priest's estate. And the Archdiocese can answer. No bankruptcy, ever, so no claims deadline; it settles one claim at a time, and it is still doing it. On September 10, 2026 it confirmed nine settlements, $5.4 million between them, for abuse between the early 1970s and the late 1990s (none on this name), and said it has paid survivors more than $400 million so far.

One thing to be clear about. Vader was never convicted of anything, and as far as anything we have read shows, never charged. What exists is a canonical decree from 2005, which is church law and not a court; a place on the Archdiocese's list, which the Archdiocese itself calls an opinion and not a legal judgment; and an entry and a narrative in the Attorney General's report. Each is exactly what it is and nothing more. We don't dress it up, and a lawyer won't either.

Your deadline: the Illinois statute of limitations for childhood sexual abuse

There are two very different groups on this page, and the deadline is different for each. The small one first. If you were a child at Holy Name of Mary in 1994 or 1995, the years in the last line of the Attorney General's entry, and you were born in 1983 or later, there is no deadline on you. None. Illinois threw that clock out on January 1, 2014 for every childhood claim still alive that day, and yours was.

The big group is everyone else: Holy Cross in the '50s and early '60s, St. Laurence after it, the first decades at Holy Name of Mary. Born in the 1940s or '50s, mostly, and under the old rules those claims had lapsed long before 2014, which Illinois won't undo by itself. So for you it turns on two things. First, when you understood the harm; the statute is specific that knowing what happened is not the same as discovering the injury it caused, and for a lot of people that comes decades on. Second, whether anyone acting for the Archdiocese concealed or manipulated, and on this name we'll be honest that the concealment facts are thinner than on some Chicago priests, because the Archdiocese's own record says it first heard in 2002. What there is: letters that said no other allegations while more were coming in, and a file nobody outside the chancery saw until November 2014. And this: the Archdiocese settled claims from the early 1970s on September 10, 2026, without a court ever saying they were too late.

In plain words. Born 1983 or later and there in the mid-'90s, there's no clock on you at all (the statute is 735 ILCS 5/13-202.2, if you want it). Born before, there may well still be a way in, but which path and whether it holds is a lawyer's call on facts only you have. Twenty minutes on the phone, not something you work out from a web page.

Your situation still qualifies even if

It wasn't Vader himself. Another priest at the parish, a nun, a teacher, a coach; the case is against the Archdiocese either way.
You have never said it out loud to anyone. Most of the 13 hadn't, for forty years or more.
It happened away from the parish. The Attorney General's entry puts two stretches of it in Deerfield, thirty miles from any church he was assigned to.
A lawyer told you, years back, that it was too late. Illinois changed that law in 2014, so ask again.
You still go to Mass there. Holy Name of Mary is still open, as part of Our Lady of Kibeho now. Plenty of the people in these cases never left.
You live in Indiana, or Wisconsin, or somewhere further. Most Morgan Park and Woodlawn kids from those years do.

Where he was

Holy Name of Mary, 11159 South Loomis Street in Morgan Park, first, because it was his for 29 years: administrator from January 1968, pastor from March 1970 to January 1997, and pastor emeritus living at Sacred Heart Mission, the parish's mission church on Church Street, until he was removed in 2003. Before it, twelve years as an assistant at Holy Cross on 65th Street in Woodlawn (1952 to 1964) and four at St. Laurence on Dorchester Avenue (1964 to 1968), both closed now. Deerfield, because the Attorney General's entry puts reported abuse there in 1955 to 1958 and 1960 to 1961, though he was never assigned there. After 2003, a retreat house in Mundelein, then Holy Family Villa in Palos Park, where he died. Somewhere else? Tell us anyway.

Questions people are asking

Who was Father Anthony Vader?

A Chicago priest. Ordained 1952, and he spent the whole of his career on the South Side: Holy Cross in Woodlawn, then St. Laurence, then 29 years as pastor of Holy Name of Mary in Morgan Park, the first Chicago parish founded by and for Black Catholics. Retired January 1997. Removed from ministry February 2003, once the first allegations reached the Archdiocese; put on its list March 2006; died July 2011. By the Attorney General's 2023 count, 13 people have reported him.

Was Father Vader ever charged with anything, or convicted?

No, neither. The Archdiocese says it reported the 2002 allegations to the Cook County State's Attorney, and nothing we've read shows a charge after that. What exists instead is the Archdiocese's own review board findings from 2003 to 2009, Cardinal George's decree of July 2005, a row on the Archdiocese's list (which, by its own wording, is an opinion), and the Attorney General's entry. Not one of those is a conviction. This page doesn't call them one, and won't.

Can I still sue if Father Vader is dead?

Yes, because the case was never really about him. It's against the Archdiocese of Chicago, which assigned him and ran the parishes and schools. It has never filed for bankruptcy and there's no claims deadline; as of September 2026 it was still settling claims from the 1970s, one at a time.

Does Illinois still have a statute of limitations on this?

Not for everyone, and the split is the whole story here. Illinois took the deadline off on January 1, 2014, but only for claims still alive that day, which on this name mostly means somebody who was a kid at Holy Name of Mary in 1994 or 1995 and was born in 1983 or later. The Holy Cross and St. Laurence years are older than that, and those claims need discovery facts, or concealment facts, to get back in. That's the whole reason we ask your birth year and whether anyone was told.

How much does a sexual abuse lawyer cost?

Nothing, here. Every case is on contingency. The lawyer is paid only out of what is recovered, and if nothing is recovered you owe nothing. Not for the call, not for the review, not for the case.

Who sees your form

Kerim Eravci · Survivor Advocate · Not a lawyer

I was a victim, and I waited. Not because I didn't know what happened to me (I knew every day), but because I'd decided it was over, mine to carry, nobody's business. When I finally went looking for a lawyer, the answer came back in two words I'd never thought about: statute of limitations. My time had run out while I was busy getting through it.

What that has cost me since is a long story, and I'll tell you the whole thing in private, if you want it. The short version is the reason my name is on this page: I'm here to help people do what I wish I'd done, which is find out where you stand while the door's still open.

I'm not a lawyer. I read what you send, I call you once, on your terms, and nothing gets filed unless you say so. Ask sooner than I did.

Kerim Eravci is not an attorney. He's a survivor.

What happens next. Three steps, nothing more until you say so.

You answer 6 questions. Nothing is filed. Nothing starts.
A survivor calls you, once. Not a robot, not a call center. Someone who has been where you are.
You decide. You find out your options. If you want to stop there, you stop there.

How this works

ME2 Survivors Alliance protects the heart. Licensed Illinois attorneys do the legal work. We are not lawyers and we don't pretend to be.

You never pay a dollar

Every case is on contingency. There is no charge for the call, the review, or the case. The firm is paid only out of a recovery, and if there is no recovery you owe nothing.