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

Thirteen years as pastor of St. Christina on Homan Avenue. Ten before that at St. Albert the Great in Burbank, and before that Quigley South, where he taught music. Forty people have reported him since, by the Illinois Attorney General's count. The Archdiocese of Chicago's own file records a meeting in November 1990 at which it was agreed the Cardinal would make no reference to knowing of the allegations; Curran stayed pastor for two more years. In November 2025 two men who'd been St. Christina students in the 1980s took the Archdiocese to court over him. If some part of your childhood ran through one of his parishes, or his rectory, this is for you.

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Looking for the St. Christina page? St. Christina Parish survivors.

This applies to you no matter what

He is dead, since March 2000. The case you'd bring was never going to be against him anyway. It's against the Archdiocese of Chicago, which assigned him, took the reports, and, by its own file, agreed in November 1990 that the Cardinal would make no reference to knowing of them.
Nobody ever charged him. The Archdiocese told the Cook County State's Attorney about the 1994 reports and no charges followed, then or ever. A prosecutor's decision thirty years ago says nothing about what happened to you, and a civil case doesn't need one.
Somebody spoke up and nothing came of it. Two men reported him to the Archdiocese in 1990. A bishop wrote that December that "we can consider this matter closed." Curran was pastor of St. Christina for two more years after that letter.
You weren't at St. Christina. The Attorney General's entry runs from 1949 to 1990, and four of its nine date ranges are Burbank, where he spent ten years at St. Albert the Great. Quigley South and St. Catherine of Siena in Oak Park are in the file too, and so are a sacristy, an altar boys' dressing room and his car.
It was forty, fifty years ago. That's the normal case on this name, not the exception. The Archdiocese said so itself in September 2026: the claims it settles now are mostly from 30 to 50 years back.
You are asking for a brother, a husband, a friend who can't make this call himself. Reach out anyway.

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

None of what follows is ours. It's the Archdiocese's own personnel file, the Illinois Attorney General, the Archdiocese's list, and the reporters who read them, and every line links to where it came from. Curran was never charged, never tried, never convicted. A Review Board finding is that board's finding, a name on a list is that list's opinion, and the complaints filed in 2012 and 2025 are complaints. The word for all of it is allegation.

1957 to 1980

Ordained May 3, 1957. Assistant at St. Bede the Venerable on the Southwest Side until 1961, then five years teaching music and chant at Quigley Preparatory Seminary South, then St. Catherine of Siena in Oak Park (1966 to 1970) and ten years at St. Albert the Great in Burbank, a parish with 1,127 children in its school. On July 1, 1980 he became pastor of St. Christina in Mount Greenwood. The Attorney General's entry, linked further down, dates reported abuse to Chicago in 1949 to 1954 and 1965 to 1970, and to Burbank in 1964, 1966, 1968 to 1970 and 1972 to 1980. BishopAccountability.org, Chicago assignment records.

November 10, 1990 to August 31, 1993

This is the Archdiocese's own file, made public in January 2014, as indexed by the lawyers who obtained it. Anonymous allegations about Curran, dating back 18 to 30 years, reached the Archdiocese in 1990. On November 10, 1990 the Cardinal and the Vicar for Priests met and, the index records, it was agreed the Cardinal "would make no reference to knowledge of the allegations." On December 1 a bishop wrote that the accusers were willing to let it rest and "we can consider this matter closed." In April 1992 Curran was told his pastorate would not be renewed; he stepped down to administrator that December and the Cardinal accepted his resignation on May 12, 1993. In between, on March 26, 1993, the Review Board found "reasonable cause to suspect" sexual misconduct with a minor. A July 24 second-stage review described "a disturbing pattern of sexual misconduct with boys," and on August 31 the Cardinal barred him from being alone with anyone under eighteen. Archdiocese personnel file, timeline with the Archdiocese's page numbers.

November 22, 1994

At the Masses of November 13, the new pastor told St. Christina parishioners that two men had come to the Archdiocese in August saying Curran abused them at the parish between 1986 and 1990. The Archdiocese's spokeswoman confirmed to the Daily Southtown that he had actually been removed as pastor in February 1993 over the earlier, anonymous allegations, and that parishioners hadn't been told because that abuse hadn't happened at St. Christina. The Cook County State's Attorney had been notified. No charges were filed. Curran was 62, retired, and did not return the paper's calls. Daily Southtown, November 22, 1994.

October 27, 2005

Nobody would say what it cost. The rest is on the record: more than a year of mediation, no lawsuits filed, and on October 27 a settlement between the Archdiocese and 24 adults, 22 men and two women, who said 14 of its priests had abused them as children, some as far back as 1957 and some as late as 1987. Curran was one of the 14, five years dead by then (March 28, 2000). And the Archdiocese's list, for what it's worth, puts his removal from public ministry at December 1994. Chicago Tribune, October 28, 2005, via BishopAccountability.org.

March 20, 2006

The list says of itself that a substantiated finding "represents the opinion of the Archdiocese, and is not a legal judgment or determination." Worth reading first, because that's the list his name went onto on March 20, 2006, the Archdiocese's public list of clergy with substantiated allegations of sexual abuse of a minor, and he's never come off it. His row in the version dated February 10, 2025 ends with "Removed from Public Ministry 12/1994" and "Deceased 3/2000," starts with ordained 5/3/1957, and in between lists eight assignments, St. Bede the Venerable first, St. Joseph in Homewood last, which is the whole of it. Archdiocese of Chicago list (PDF).

April 24, 2012

St. Christina, 11005 S. Homan Ave., 1987. That's where and when the complaint puts it, the one a former altar server filed in Cook County Circuit Court under the name John W. Doe, against the Archdiocese, though the memories, he said, hadn't come back to him until 2011, and the Archdiocese, the complaint went on, "had previously received reports that he was sexually abusing minors." A complaint, not a finding. The Archdiocese said it hadn't seen it yet. CBS Chicago.

May 23, 2023

The Illinois Attorney General's Report on Catholic Clergy Child Sex Abuse in Illinois gave John William Curran an entry among the Archdiocese of Chicago clerics with substantiated allegations: ordained 1957, 40 reported survivors, reported abuse from 1949 to 1990 in Chicago and Burbank, the Archdiocese's own date of first report 1990, removed from public ministry 1994, died 2000. Eight assignments are listed, St. Christina and St. Albert the Great among them. Illinois Attorney General, report entry.

November 24, 2025

Still open, these two. Two men who had been students at St. Christina Catholic School and Parish in the 1980s each sued the Archdiocese of Chicago. What their complaints say, and a complaint is an allegation, is that Curran groomed them and abused them in his bedroom at the rectory, and that the Archdiocese had known about complaints against him since the 1960s. Their lawyers' release puts it this way: "By 1979, the Archdiocese had expressed notice that Fr. Curran had harmed children, yet the Archdiocese continued to relocate him rather than remove him from ministry." Negligence and civil conspiracy are the counts. The Archdiocese declined to comment. CBS Chicago.

We checked this on September 13, 2026, and the newest thing in it is from November 24, 2025. When something new gets filed or decided, it goes in here within 72 hours, with the link.

Who answers for what Father Curran is accused of

The Archdiocese of Chicago, which assigned him, took the reports, and decided what to do with them. That's the whole theory, and on this name most of it is already on paper. The Archdiocese's own file shows the 1990 allegations, the November 10 meeting about the Cardinal making no reference to knowing of them, a bishop's "matter closed" letter three weeks later, and a pastor left in place until 1993. Then a parish told it was a sabbatical. Then, in 1993, its own Review Board finding a "disturbing pattern." Prior reports, the 2012 complaint says. The two filed in November 2025 go further back, to the 1960s, for when the Archdiocese knew about complaints against him, and the lawyers who filed them put notice at 1979 or earlier. Those are allegations, and they're the ones a lawyer would set out to prove. The file is what they'd prove them with.

The priest himself is beside the point. He died on March 28, 2000, and Illinois doesn't let a punitive claim follow a man into his grave, so these cases are pleaded against what the Archdiocese 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. Curran was one of the 14 priests in its October 2005 settlement. On September 10, 2026 it settled nine more claims, $5.4 million over eight other priests, all dead, for conduct from the early 1970s to the late 1990s, and said in its own words that incidents "30 to 50 years ago" are "consistent with the large majority of claims coming forward today." By its own statement it has paid more than $400 million to survivors.

One thing to be clear about. Curran was never charged with anything, never convicted of anything. The state's attorney was told in 1994 and nothing was filed. What exists instead is a Review Board's finding, a place 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 two complaints that haven't been decided. 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

Born 1983 or later is the rough line for having no deadline at all. What Illinois did, on January 1, 2014, was stop the clock for good on any childhood sexual abuse claim still alive that morning. Alive is the catch. A claim that had already run out under the old rules stayed run out; 2014 didn't bring it back. Curran left St. Christina early in 1993 and the Attorney General's reported conduct on him ends in 1990, so a kid born in 1983 was seven when the last of it is dated. A few people on this page are on that side of the line. Most are not.

Born before 1983, and the clock turns on two things. When you first understood that what happened is tied to the harm you carry, which for a lot of people is decades later, and whether the Archdiocese knew and kept quiet. Illinois keeps that second door open when an institution concealed what it knew, and in 2011 an Illinois appellate court upheld a verdict against the Diocese of Belleville on exactly that ground, over abuse in the 1970s and a suit filed in 2002. On this name the concealment facts aren't a theory, they're the Archdiocese's file: a November 1990 meeting about saying nothing, a "matter closed" letter, a parish told sabbatical. Other Illinois courts have gone the other way where no concealment was pleaded. So it turns on facts. Yours, and the file's.

In plain words. 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 men who sued in 2012 and 2025 were all on that path. Which door, 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 Curran. Another priest at the same parish, a teacher, a coach. The case is against the Archdiocese either way.
You have never said it out loud to anyone. Most of the 40 hadn't, for decades.
It happened in his car, or on a trip, or at your own house, not at the church. The file describes all three.
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. Plenty of the people in these cases do.
You live in Indiana or Wisconsin or Arizona now. Most Southwest Side kids from those years do.

Where he was

St. Christina, 11005 S. Homan Ave. in Mount Greenwood, church, rectory and school, his for thirteen years from July 1980 to early 1993, and the one the 1994 reports and the 2012 and 2025 complaints are about. Before that, St. Albert the Great in Burbank, 1970 to 1980, where the file puts reports from the rectory, the sacristy and the altar boys' dressing room. Before that, in this order: St. Bede the Venerable (1957 to 1961), Quigley Preparatory Seminary South, where he taught music (1961 to 1966), St. Catherine of Siena in Oak Park (1966 to 1970). Blessed Sacrament is on the Archdiocese's and the Attorney General's lists without years. After 1993 he wasn't in a parish: Alvernia Manor, then two years in residence at St. Joseph in Homewood from 1996 under a protocol, then a nursing home. Somewhere else? A trip, his car, your house? Tell us anyway.

Questions people are asking

Who was Father John Curran?

A Chicago priest. Ordained in 1957, a music teacher at Quigley South in the 1960s, ten years at St. Albert the Great in Burbank, and pastor of St. Christina in Mount Greenwood from July 1980 until he resigned early in 1993, after the Archdiocese had received allegations in 1990 and decided, its file shows, to say nothing. The Archdiocese's list dates his removal from public ministry to December 1994; it put him on that list in March 2006. He died on March 28, 2000, with 40 people having reported him by the Attorney General's count.

Was Father Curran ever charged with anything, or convicted?

No, neither. The Archdiocese notified the Cook County State's Attorney in 1994, and nothing was filed. So what's left is the Review Board's 1993 findings, a row on the Archdiocese's list (which, by its own wording, is an opinion), the Attorney General's 2023 entry, and the civil complaints of 2012 and 2025. Not one of those is a conviction. This page doesn't call them one, and won't.

Can I still sue if Father Curran is dead?

Yes, because the case was never really about him. It's against the Archdiocese of Chicago, which assigned him and was told about him. Curran was among the 14 priests in its 2005 settlement. In 2012, and again in November 2025, former St. Christina students sued it over him. All of that happened with him long gone.

Does Illinois still have a statute of limitations on this?

For most people, 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. The catch is claims that had already lapsed under the older rules, and for Curran's years that's nearly everyone. 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.

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.