If you were an altar server, a student or a kid in the parish under Father John Calicott, we believe you.

Three South Side parishes, 1974 to 2002: St. Ailbe, Holy Name of Mary, and eleven years as pastor of Holy Angels, with a school of 1,300 children next door. In 1994 the Archdiocese of Chicago found two reports about him credible. Eighteen months later it sent him back to Holy Angels anyway. The Illinois Attorney General counts seven people who've reported him. In 2019 the Archdiocese paid one of them $8 million. Not after a trial, not even after a lawsuit; he'd been a Holy Angels kid in the 1990s, and it paid. Calicott himself died in May 2024, which changes less than you'd think. If some part of your childhood ran through one of his parishes, this is for you.

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He is dead, since May 2024. The case you'd bring was never going to be against him anyway. It's against the Archdiocese of Chicago, which found the 1994 reports credible, sent him back to Holy Angels in October 1995, and kept him there until June 2002.
Nobody ever charged him. There was no criminal case, not in 1994, not in 2004, not ever. What there is instead is his own statement in 2002 that he took "full, complete and total responsibility" for what happened in 1976, and a civil case doesn't need a prosecutor.
You were at Holy Angels after he came back. That's the part of the record that matters most. Someone called the chancery twelve days after his return to say he'd gone into the church basement alone with a child. He stayed pastor for another six and a half years.
Somebody at the parish told you it had all been dealt with, that he'd been cleared, that the allegations were "scurrilous." A petition said exactly that. The Archdiocese paid $8 million on his name in 2019 all the same.
It wasn't at Holy Angels. St. Ailbe in the seventies, Holy Name of Mary in the eighties, a camping trip, Kentucky in 1979. The Attorney General's entry covers 1976 to 2002.
You are asking for a brother, a husband, a friend who can't do this himself. Reach out anyway.

Father John Calicott: what the public record says, and when

None of what follows is ours. It's the Archdiocese's own personnel file, released in November 2014, the Illinois Attorney General, the Archdiocese's own list, the Chicago papers that covered him for thirty years, and every line links to where it came from. Calicott was never charged with a crime, never tried, never convicted. What the Archdiocese found, it found under its own process, and it calls that an opinion, not a legal judgment. The 2004 lawsuit was a complaint. The word for all of it is allegation, except where he spoke for himself.

March 31 and April 5, 1994

Two adult men told the Archdiocese that Calicott had abused them at St. Ailbe in the mid-1970s, when they were boys. The Archdiocese's own review sheet, in the file it released in 2014, records the two reports, both "St. Ailbe's - 1975," one boy 12, the other 14, and marks each one credible. On April 11, Cardinal Bernardin put Calicott, by then two years into his pastorate at Holy Angels, on administrative leave "effective immediately." No police report is mentioned anywhere in the coverage. Chicago Tribune, April 12, 1994, via BishopAccountability.org.

October 13, 1995

Cardinal Bernardin reversed his own policy and sent him back. The Tribune reported that Calicott "acknowledged engaging in sexual acts with two male minors while a priest in 1976," that two psychological evaluations found no "significant risk to children" if the therapy continued, and that parishioners had asked for him. The conditions: an on-site adult monitor whenever he was with children, and a signed covenant. That was the arrangement for a pastor at 607 East Oakwood Boulevard with 1,300 students in the school next door. Calicott's line to the paper: "The main issue to me is the risk to children, and I'm not a risk to kids." Chicago Tribune, October 13, 1995, via BishopAccountability.org.

October 23, 1995 to November 1999

Twelve days after the return, an anonymous caller from Holy Angels phoned the Archdiocese's Office of Professional Fitness Review: on October 16, children outside the rectory, Calicott unlocking the church basement with his own key and going in alone with one of them, a parent finding the door locked. That memo is page AOC 010679 of his file. On January 27, 1998, the Review Board wrote to Cardinal-elect George that new information "raises new questions about whether children are at risk at this time" and that it could not make a recommendation on his second term as pastor. He stayed regardless: on November 3, 1999, after a further review, the chancellor recorded that the Cardinal had accepted the Board's recommendations, an on-site monitor among them, and Calicott remained pastor until 2002. Archdiocese of Chicago file on Calicott, part 3 (PDF), released November 2014.

June 2002

What finally ended it was the Dallas Charter, the bishops' zero-tolerance rule, and on June 25, 2002 Cardinal George withdrew him from ministry. Calicott had seen it coming. A few days earlier he'd told the Sun-Times he took "full, complete and total responsibility" for the sexual misconduct with two boys in 1976, and in the same breath called the new rule "a punishment, a vengeance." He kept sleeping at the Holy Angels rectory for more than a year afterward, and in December 2003 addressed a health class at the school. The Archdiocese's spokesman, asked in January 2004: "He's not supposed to be doing that." Chicago Sun-Times, June 15, 2002, via BishopAccountability.org.

March 8, 2004

A third man, 42, filing as John Doe, sued Calicott and the Archdiocese of Chicago in the Circuit Court of Cook County. His complaint (a complaint, not a finding) alleged that Calicott sexually abused him and other children from St. Ailbe school beginning in January 1975, when Calicott was the associate pastor there. His lawyer said he came forward after hearing about the sex lectures; the Archdiocese, asked, said nothing. What followed was slow. Rome ordered a canonical trial that August. It took until February 16, 2008 for the Review Board's minutes to record the outcome: guilty, dismissed from the clerical state. The laicization itself came in 2009. Chicago Tribune, March 9, 2004, via BishopAccountability.org.

August 8, 2019

The Sun-Times had this one. The man was identified only as John Doe, a boy at Holy Angels in the 1990s (after the return, note) who said Calicott abused him there, and the Archdiocese paid him $8 million. A Chicago law firm announced it; nobody had sued. The Archdiocese had simply paid, and the last installment had gone out in July. Its spokeswoman: "We do not confirm or comment regarding settlements." Calicott, reached by phone, called the accusation "crazy" and "absurd." Chicago Sun-Times, August 8, 2019.

May 23, 2023

The Illinois Attorney General's Report on Catholic Clergy Child Sex Abuse in Illinois has a page for John Walter Calicott, ordained 1974, under the Archdiocese of Chicago clerics with substantiated allegations. The entry is terse. 7 reported survivors. Reported abuse "1976-2002: Chicago, IL" and "1979: Kentucky." Three assignments, St. Ailbe, Holy Name of Mary, Holy Angels. The Archdiocese's own claim that the first report came in 1993. On the Archdiocese's public list since January 14, 2003; removed from public ministry 2002; laicized 2009. Then, in the report's history of the Archdiocese, he turns up again, this time as the example. The example of a credibly accused priest put back in front of children, on condition that he was "never to be alone with a child without the presence of a 'responsible adult.'" The report adds one more line: "after Calicott's removal, the archdiocese received additional allegations of abuse by Calicott." Illinois Attorney General, report entry.

March 7, 2024

The Archdiocese's own list, Clergy with Allegations of Sexual Abuse of a Minor Substantiated by the Archdiocese, gives him one row as it reads today: ordained May 8, 1974; St. Ailbe, Holy Name of Mary, Holy Angels; limited ministry with restrictions and monitoring, April 1994; returned to ministry with restrictions and monitoring, October 1995; removed from public ministry, June 2002; laicized, September 2009. The list says of itself that a substantiated finding "represents the opinion of the Archdiocese, and is not a legal judgment or determination." Two months after that version was published, he died. Archdiocese of Chicago list (PDF).

We checked this on September 13, 2026, and the newest thing in it is from March 7, 2024. When something new gets filed or decided, it goes in here within 72 hours, with the link.

Who answers for what Father Calicott is accused of

The Archdiocese of Chicago, which assigned him, took the reports, found them credible, and put him back. That's the whole theory, and on this name the state already wrote the hard part down. The Attorney General's report picks Calicott as its example of what the Archdiocese did when its own rules said a credibly accused priest should never again be placed with children: it "returned Calicott to ministry as pastor of Holy Angels with certain conditions imposed," and he "remained in ministry with access to children until 2002." The file fills in what the conditions were worth. A locked basement door twelve days in. A Review Board in 1998 that couldn't say children were safe. Kept on as pastor in 1999 regardless. And after June 2002, more allegations, the Attorney General says, and more than one of them from the years after the return.

The priest himself is beside the point. He was laicized in 2009 and died in May 2024, and Illinois does not let a punitive claim follow a man into his grave, so these cases are pleaded against what the Archdiocese (on paper, the Catholic Bishop of Chicago, a corporation sole) and the parish knew and did, not against a dead priest's estate. And the Archdiocese can answer. It has never filed for bankruptcy, there's no claims deadline, and it settles one case at a time. On this name it paid $8 million in 2019 to one man from Holy Angels, before any suit was filed. In the two weeks to September 10, 2026 it settled nine more claims, for $5.4 million, on abuse from the early 1970s to the late 1990s, and by its own statement it has paid more than $400 million to survivors.

One thing to be clear about. Calicott was never convicted of anything, never charged. What exists is his own 2002 statement of responsibility for 1976, the Archdiocese's credibility finding, a canonical verdict, a row on the Archdiocese's list, which the Archdiocese itself calls an opinion and not a legal judgment, an entry in the Attorney General's report, and a 2004 complaint. 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

For most of the Holy Angels kids, there is no deadline. None. The Attorney General's window on this name runs to 2002, and he was pastor there from 1991. If you were a boy in that parish or that school in the 1990s, the clock that used to run on you was thrown out on January 1, 2014 and hasn't come back.

The exception is claims that had already run out before the law changed, because Illinois won't bring a dead claim back to life. Roughly: born in 1983 or later means your claim was still alive in 2014, and you can file on age alone. Born earlier, which is everyone from St. Ailbe and Holy Name of Mary and some of the early Holy Angels years, and it depends on two things. When you first understood the harm, and what the Archdiocese said, or hid, along the way. Illinois keeps that second path open when the institution kept quiet, and here the quiet is in the Archdiocese's own file: a credible finding in 1994, a return in 1995 with a covenant nobody outside the chancery saw, a 1998 board letter about risk to children, a personnel file that stayed sealed until November 2014. An Illinois appellate court upheld a verdict on 1970s conduct against a downstate diocese on exactly that kind of silence, in 2011.

Which comes down to this. Born after 1982, there's probably no clock on you at all; Illinois took it off on January 1, 2014, in 735 ILCS 5/13-202.2. Born before, there may well still be a way in, and the Archdiocese settled nine claims from the 1970s to the 1990s this September without a court ever calling them late. Either way it's a conversation, twenty minutes on the phone, not something you work out from a web page.

Your situation still qualifies even if

It wasn't Calicott himself. Another priest at the parish, a teacher, a coach, a scout leader; the case is against the Archdiocese either way.
You have never said it out loud to anyone. Neither had the two men who reported him in 1994, not for nineteen years.
It happened somewhere other than the church. A camping trip, the rectory, the church basement; the record describes every one of those.
The parish stood behind him and you didn't want to be the one. Five hundred families rallied for him in 2004. That says nothing about what happened to you.
A lawyer told you, years back, that it was too late. Illinois changed that law in 2014, so ask again.
You live somewhere else now. Most people from those years do.

Where he was

Holy Angels most of all. That's 607 East Oakwood Boulevard on the South Side, the parish school beside it, his from 1991 to June 2002 if you don't count the eighteen months on leave. It's called Our Lady of Africa now, same address. Before Holy Angels he was associate pastor at two places, and the older one matters more. St. Ailbe on Harper Avenue (1974 to 1980) is where the 1975 and 1976 reports come from, and the 2004 complaint too. Then eleven years at Holy Name of Mary on 112th Street, 1980 to 1991. Those years come from the archdiocesan file, by the way; the Attorney General's entry and the Archdiocese's list name the three parishes and leave the years off. After 2002 he lived at the retreat house in Mundelein, and kept turning up at Holy Angels. Not everything happened at a parish, either: the 2004 reporting has him on a camping trip to Canada in 1976 and another one in 1980, and the Attorney General's entry puts him in Kentucky in 1979. Somewhere else? Tell us anyway.

Questions people are asking

Can I still sue if Father Calicott is dead?

Yes, because the case was never really about him. It's against the Archdiocese of Chicago, which assigned him, found the reports credible, and sent him back to Holy Angels. It paid $8 million on his name in 2019 with him still alive and denying it. He died in May 2024; the Archdiocese didn't.

Does Illinois still have a statute of limitations on this?

For most people on this page, not anymore. It went away on January 1, 2014. If your claim was still alive that day, then no, there's no deadline on it now, and for Holy Angels in the 1990s that covers most of the kids. The catch is claims that had already lapsed under the older rules. Those need discovery or concealment facts to get back in, which is the whole reason we ask whether you were born in 1983 or later.

Who was Father John Calicott?

The pastor of Holy Angels on the South Side through most of the 1990s, and the priest the Archdiocese of Chicago sent back there in 1995 after finding two reports against him credible. Ordained May 8, 1974; St. Ailbe first, then Holy Name of Mary, then Holy Angels from 1991 until Cardinal George withdrew him in June 2002, with a year and a half on leave in the middle (the years for each parish are in the section on where he was). Laicized in 2009. Died May 2024. Seven people had reported him by then, going by the Attorney General's count.

Did Calicott ever get charged, or convicted of anything?

No, neither. No prosecutor ever filed anything, in 1994 or after. What exists is his own statement to the Sun-Times in June 2002 that he took full responsibility for the 1976 misconduct, the Archdiocese's credibility finding, a canonical trial verdict in 2008, a row on the Archdiocese's list (which, by its own wording, is an opinion), the Attorney General's 2023 entry, and a 2004 civil complaint. Not one of those is a criminal conviction. This page doesn't call them one, and won't.

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.