If you were a kid in the parish under Father James Hagan, we believe you.

Twenty-two years in four parishes, the last eight of them as pastor of St. Denis in Ashburn. Parents complained in May 1988. Before that year was out the Archdiocese had made him a pastor. And in December 1991 it sent him a letter that said, in so many words, not to worry. That letter is public now, and so is the rest of it.

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Looking for the Archdiocese page? Archdiocese of Chicago survivors.

This applies to you no matter what

He was never charged with anything. The 1988 report went to DCFS and the State's Attorney and came back unfounded; in 1996 the authorities said prosecution was unlikely after so many years. None of that is a finding about you.
He's not dead, as far as the public record shows. Resigned from the priesthood in April 1997, laicized in April 2010, and that's the last the record says. It doesn't matter much. Every claim that's been paid was paid by the Archdiocese, and that is who a case is against.
You liked him. Everybody did. The Attorney General's report opens its section on him with a parishioner calling him "the cool addition to the church."
Nobody believed you then, or you never tried. Parents did try, in 1988, and the Archdiocese closed the file and promoted him. Whatever you did or didn't say at twelve is not the problem here.
Someone told you the Hagan cases were 'done.' Some are. Of the 19 people on the Attorney General's count, some settled, in 2003, 2005 and 2008, and if you weren't one of them those settlements don't touch you.
You're asking for a brother, a cousin, a friend who was an altar server there and won't make this call himself. Reach out anyway.

Father James Hagan: what the public record says, and when

None of this is ours. It's the Illinois Attorney General, the Archdiocese's own list and its own files, a Cook County complaint and the reporters who covered them, and every line below links to where it came from. Hagan was never charged with a crime and has never admitted anything. A name on a list is that list's finding. A complaint is an allegation. We use those words on purpose.

May 1988

Parents went to the Archdiocese and to law enforcement over the way Hagan was teaching a sex-education class. DCFS called it unfounded and prosecutors did not pursue it. That same year the Archdiocese made him pastor of St. Denis, where he stayed through 1996. The Attorney General's report says archdiocesan records show he had likely begun abusing three children in 1981 and three more in 1982, the years he was at St. Richard. Illinois Attorney General, Hagan narrative.

December 4, 1991

The vicar for priests, Father Patrick O'Malley, wrote to Hagan about Cardinal Bernardin's new commission reviewing every abuse case in the Archdiocese's records. The May 1988 case had been presented, he wrote, and the commission "agreed that there was no need for action at this time. As far as they were concerned, the incident is closed." And then: "Not to worry. We can put it away for good now." The letter came out of the Archdiocese's own files in January 2014. OakPark.com, January 2014.

April 25, 1996

Hagan was placed on administrative leave as pastor of St. Denis, 8301 S. St. Louis, after several men in their 20s came forward in one week alleging misconduct from 1981 to 1986, when he was an associate pastor at St. Richard, 5032 S. Kostner. DCFS and the State's Attorney were notified; officials said prosecution was unlikely after so many years. He resigned as pastor that August and from the priesthood in April 1997. Sun-Times, April 1996.

October 2, 2003

The Archdiocese settled 15 claims against 12 priests for more than $8 million after nine months of mediation. Hagan was one of the 12; two of the 15 were his, and one of those men, then 35, said publicly that it began at St. Richard in about 1982. On October 27, 2005 the Archdiocese settled 24 more claims against 14 priests, Hagan again among them. No suit had been filed in that round and the total was never released. Sun-Times, October 2003.

April 13, 2006

John Doe 105, as the pleading calls him, was 24 when he filed in the Circuit Court of Cook County. Six counts, and two defendants: Hagan, and the Archdiocese of Chicago. St. Denis, 1994 to 1996, an altar boy of 13 and then 14; that is the abuse it alleges, and against the Archdiocese it pleads negligence and fraud. Asked about the suit, the Archdiocese confirmed two things. The 1988 report had gone to the State's Attorney and DCFS. And Hagan went from St. Gertrude to St. Denis that same year. Sun-Times, April 2006.

August 12, 2008

The Archdiocese paid $12.7 million to settle claims from 16 people against 11 priests. Hagan was one of the 11; his accusers' lawyers described that claim as abuse at St. Denis between 1990 and 1996. Tribune, August 2008.

January 21, 2014

Under a court settlement the Archdiocese released its files on 30 priests, Hagan's among them. The plaintiffs' lawyers' timeline of that file cites a November 13, 2007 deposition in which Bishop Raymond Goedert acknowledged that Hagan was kept in ministry and promoted after the 1988 allegation. Tribune, January 2014.

May 23, 2023

James Craig Hagan has his own entry in the Illinois Attorney General's Report on Catholic Clergy Child Sex Abuse. The 19 on this page is that entry's count of reported survivors, 1972 to 1996, with a first report to the Archdiocese in 1988; the 11 is the Archdiocese's own tally of substantiated allegations as of April 2010, recorded there. And so is this, a declaration Cardinal George signed in May 2005: the Archdiocese "does not consider itself in any way responsible for the activities of James C. Hagan." Illinois Attorney General, Hagan entry.

We checked this on September 11, 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 Hagan is accused of

Not him, in any way that counts. Laicized in 2010, no parish, no diocese behind him, and nobody, ever, has collected a dollar from James Hagan personally. The money in every settlement on this page came from the Archdiocese of Chicago. The 2006 complaint named the Archdiocese right beside him. That is where a case lives. The Archdiocese assigned him, moved him three times, made him a pastor, and it is the Archdiocese that answers for what it knew when it did each of those things.

What it knew is the unusual part of this record, and it's unusual because the Archdiocese wrote it down. Parents reported him in May 1988. Within the year he had his own parish and 627 school kids. In December 1991, with a commission reviewing every abuse case on file, the vicar for priests told him in writing that the incident was closed and to put it away for good. In 2007 a bishop said under oath that he was kept in ministry and promoted after the 1988 allegation. The 2006 complaint put it this way: the Archdiocese "had been apprised of Hagan's pedophiliac behavior and sexual abuse of young boys prior to the time that Hagan was assigned to St. Denis... but failed to act on that knowledge." That's the plaintiff's pleading, not a court's finding. But the letter it rests on is real, and the Attorney General printed it.

One more thing, plainly. In May 2005 Cardinal George signed a declaration that the Archdiocese "does not consider itself in any way responsible for the activities of James C. Hagan." Three years later it paid $12.7 million to settle sixteen claims, one of them about St. Denis. A lawyer will know what to make of those two facts side by side; you don't have to.

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

If you were at St. Denis in the 1990s, there is very likely no deadline at all. Illinois used to give you twenty years from your eighteenth birthday. Then, on January 1, 2014, it took the limit off childhood sexual abuse claims altogether (735 ILCS 5/13-202.2, and it's stayed off), but only for claims still alive that morning, and for anyone born in 1983 or later the claim was. So no clock, none, for the 1994, 1995, 1996 altar servers and the youngest kids in the parish.

Before 1983 it gets more careful, and that's most of the people on the Attorney General's count: St. Richard was 1981 to 1986, Oak Park was the 1970s. Illinois won't revive a claim that had already run out before 2014, so for those years a lawyer needs one of two things. Either you only came to understand, later in life, that what happened caused the harm you carry; Illinois counts from the understanding, not the act. Or the truth was kept from you, which stops the clock under a separate part of the same statute. On that second one, this record is not like most. A closed file in 1988. A letter in 1991 saying put it away for good. Those are the facts a concealment argument is built from, and here they're in the Archdiocese's own files.

So: no clock for the youngest cohort, and a real path, though not a promise, for everyone older. It takes a conversation to know which you are, and it can't be settled from a web page.

Your situation still qualifies even if

It wasn't Hagan. Another priest, a teacher, a coach at the parish school. The case is against the Archdiocese either way.
You have never said it out loud to anyone.
You stayed in the Church. Or you left the day you could. Neither changes anything.
A lawyer told you, years ago, that it was too late. Illinois changed that law in 2014, so ask again.
You were already paid something in 2003 or 2005 or 2008 and want to know if that closed the door. Ask; it depends on what you signed.
You live in Indiana now, or Arizona, or anywhere. Most people who grew up on the Southwest Side left it, and that changes nothing.

Where he was

Four parishes. First St. Catherine of Siena–St. Lucy in Oak Park, associate pastor, 1974 to 1981. Then St. Richard, 50th and Kostner on the Southwest Side, associate pastor again, 1981 to 1986 (St. Richard has since been folded into Sts. Bruno and Richard). Two years at St. Gertrude, 1420 W. Granville in Edgewater, 1986 to 1988. And St. Denis, 8301 S. St. Louis Ave. in Ashburn, where he was pastor from 1988 to 1996. The Attorney General's entry adds two more places with reported abuse: Franklin Park in 1988, and Oak Park in 1972, before he was ordained. Somewhere else entirely, or a trip, a retreat, the bus on a field trip? Tell us anyway.

Questions people are asking

Did Father Hagan ever face criminal charges?

No, never. Twice it got as far as the authorities. In 1988 the report went to DCFS and the Cook County State's Attorney, DCFS called it unfounded, and prosecutors let it go. In 1996, when the men came forward, the authorities were told again and said prosecution was unlikely after so many years. Everything since has been civil: three rounds of settlements paid by the Archdiocese, and the 2006 complaint in Cook County.

Who was Father Hagan, exactly?

A priest of the Archdiocese of Chicago, ordained May 8, 1974, who by the end had spent 22 years in four of its parishes and been pastor at St. Denis in Ashburn (the parish, the school, 627 kids) for the last eight of them. Pastor until 1996, priest until 1997, laicized in 2010, and on the Archdiocese's own list since March 20, 2006. The Attorney General's count is 19 reported survivors; the Archdiocese's is 11 substantiated allegations. The rest, with its sources, is in the record above.

What did the Archdiocese know, and when?

May 1988 is when it first heard, and what it did next is in its own files. It made him pastor of St. Denis that year. In December 1991 the vicar for priests wrote him that the matter was closed and to put it away for good. In 2007 Bishop Goedert said in a deposition that Hagan was kept in ministry and promoted after the 1988 allegation. All of it is in the Archdiocese's own documents, which came out in 2014; the Attorney General's 2023 report quotes them.

Can I sue over Father Hagan when he was never convicted and isn't even a priest now?

Yes. A civil case doesn't need a conviction, and it doesn't need him. The cases already brought were against the Archdiocese of Chicago for what it knew and what it did, and the Archdiocese is the one that paid, in 2003, 2005 and 2008. Whether you can depends mostly on when you were born, which is what the questions above sort out.

How long do I have to file in Illinois?

For a lot of people, there's no deadline anymore. Illinois dropped its statute of limitations on childhood sexual abuse on January 1, 2014, and anyone whose claim was still alive that day, which means anyone born in 1983 or later, has none now. For anyone older it turns on when you understood the harm and on what was kept from you. That's a conversation with a lawyer, not a checkbox.

How much does a sexual abuse lawyer cost?

Nothing, here. Every case is on contingency, which means the lawyer is paid out of what is recovered and out of nothing else. If nothing is recovered, you owe nothing. That goes for the call, the review and the case itself.

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.