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

Eight parishes in forty years. St. John the Baptist de la Salle, Our Lady of the Ridge, St. Christina, three parishes as pastor, then nine years at Holy Ghost in South Holland. The Attorney General's report counts at least 11 people who have said what he did to them as children, and the Archdiocese of Chicago had the first of those reports on its desk in October 2002, more than three years before it took him out of a parish. If your years were in one of those places, keep reading.

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Looking for the Archdiocese page? Archdiocese of Chicago survivors.

This applies to you no matter what

You aren't one of the eleven. Nobody expects you to be. The Attorney General counts people who came forward, and the Archdiocese's file went from one report in October 2002 to more than a dozen by the time he was removed, according to the Tribune.
You told someone. A nun, the school office, your mother, a priest at the next parish. And nothing happened, or you were told it was handled. Say so on the call. In a case against the Archdiocese, that is not a side detail.
You never told a soul. Think about the man who did go to the Archdiocese, in 2002: he sat for a lie-detector test to be believed and the review board found no cause anyway. Silence made sense.
You were a girl. Most of what gets written about priests assumes boys, and the reports the Archdiocese got in 2003 didn't fit that at all; they were about two girls, from the late 1960s.
It was the 1960s and you were at one of his first parishes. The oldest years count, and they count from before he was a priest: the Attorney General's entry starts his conduct in 1963, three years ahead of his ordination.
Or it isn't you at all, it's your brother, your husband, a sister who won't pick up the phone. Reach out anyway.

Father Joseph Bennett: what the public record says, and when

None of what follows is ours. It's the Illinois Attorney General, the Archdiocese of Chicago's own list and its own released file, and the reporters who read the Cardinal's deposition in 2008. Every line links to its source. Bennett was never charged with a crime. What exists is the Archdiocese's finding, the Attorney General's finding, and a settlement. Those are the words we use, and where something is a report rather than a finding, we say report.

1966 to February 2006

The assignment record first, and it's short to say. Ordained April 26, 1966. Eight assignments in forty years, every one of them on the South Side or in the south suburbs (the full list, with the years, is further down this page under "Where he was"), pastor three times over from 1980 on, and Holy Ghost in South Holland from 1997 until the Archdiocese removed him in February 2006. Two years in the middle, 1976 to 1978, he lived at St. Joseph and St. Anne and served as chaplain at the Cook County Jail. BishopAccountability.org, Chicago assignment records.

October 23, 2002 to November 7, 2005

The Archdiocese got the first report on October 23, 2002, opened a file, and on November 12 received a polygraph report from the man's lawyer. The Professional Fitness Review Board looked at it twice, on January 14, 2003, when it voted 5 to 1 that there was insufficient information, and on April 26, 2003, when it voted 7 to 0 that there was no reasonable cause to suspect misconduct. Bennett stayed at Holy Ghost. In February 2004 Cardinal George signed him to a second six-year term as pastor there, dated back to July 1, 2003. New reports came in, about two girls and the late 1960s. On October 15, 2005 the board held a Review for Cause, found reasonable cause to suspect abuse had occurred, and recommended he be withdrawn from ministry at once. On November 7 the Cardinal accepted the finding and postponed the decision. Archdiocese of Chicago file, timeline with the Archdiocese's own dates.

February 2006

Removed from Holy Ghost parish. The Archdiocese's list says February 2006; its file says leave as of February 1, and that same day the Vicar General asked the Diocese of Gary, where Bennett lived, to monitor him. On March 23, 2006 the Archdiocese's legal office told the State's Attorney that DCFS had opened an investigation on February 2 into a report about a minor at Holy Ghost church. BishopAccountability, summarizing the file, has him removed January 31, 2006, "then at least 10 other allegations were received." Jeff Anderson & Associates, Bennett assignment and file summary.

August 12, 2008

On this date the Archdiocese settled 16 claims. The figure was $12,675,000, and the news release it put out, its own, lists the priests those claims were about. "Joseph R. Bennett, removed from ministry in 2006" is one of the names. The Cardinal's deposition, taken during the mediation, went up on the Archdiocese's website the same day. Archdiocese of Chicago news release.

August 13, 2008

The Tribune read the deposition and laid out what it showed. Four detailed allegations, dating to 2002. A review board that recommended removal in October 2005, and again in November. By the time he went, "more than a dozen allegations had mounted against the priest," and nobody told the parishioners. The 2002 accuser had passed a lie-detector test; the Cardinal said he'd never been given that. And then there was the dermatologist's note. An accuser had described marks on Bennett's body. A priest then advised him to get a note from a dermatologist. Was that an attempt to explain it away? Asked exactly that, the Cardinal said, "It could be read that way." Chicago Tribune, August 13, 2008.

September 15, 2008 to August 2014

Four lines. That's all the Archdiocese's list of clergy with substantiated allegations of sexual abuse of a minor gives him, on the version dated February 10, 2025. Monitored, January 2003. Removed from public ministry, February 2006. Resigned, July 2012. Laicized, August 2014. Status: laicized. His name has been there since September 15, 2008, and no date of death is recorded there, or anywhere else we read. Archdiocese of Chicago, list of clergy with substantiated allegations.

January 21, 2014

Under the 2008 settlement, the Archdiocese released its files on 30 priests, about 6,000 pages, Bennett's among them. NCR singled his out as the case in which the Cardinal "overrode a decision of his review board" and kept him in ministry. WBEZ found the letter to the Diocese of Gary about monitoring him, in which the Archdiocese said it knew of only one allegation. WBEZ, January 22, 2014.

May 23, 2023

The Illinois Attorney General's report on Catholic clergy abuse gave him an entry. At least 11 reported survivors. Conduct 1963 to 1964 in Chicago, before ordination; 1967 to 1981 in Chicago and Barrington; 1967 to 1979 in Chicago Ridge; 1974 to 1981 in Orland Park; South Holland, dates unknown. First report to the diocese, 2002. Nine Illinois assignments listed, St. Christina among them, and nothing on the entry ties a particular report to a particular parish. Illinois Attorney General, Bennett 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 Bennett is accused of

Not him, in any way that matters. He was laicized in 2014 and never charged. The Archdiocese of Chicago is who these claims run against, and it always was. It ordained him, moved him eight times, made him a pastor three times over, and in February 2004, sixteen months after the first report, gave him six more years at Holy Ghost. The theory is plain. An archdiocese that puts a man in charge of a parish and its altar servers owes those kids ordinary care. If it had reason to know and kept him there, the law calls that negligent supervision and retention. The Archdiocese's own settlement release from 2008 names him. That is the part most people don't know: it has already paid on this name.

What makes Bennett's file unusual is how much of the knowing is dated. A report in October 2002. A lie-detector result the Cardinal says never reached him. A review board that found reasonable cause in October 2005 and said he should go at once. Three more months. A letter to another diocese saying there was one allegation when, the Tribune reported, there were more than a dozen. Mistake or something else, that's the argument a lawyer makes. One honest caveat, and the deadline section spells it out: if your years were in his parishes, you were born before 1983, and the case turns on discovery and concealment facts only you know. Which is why the first conversation is with a person, not a form.

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

Illinois took the deadline off in 2014. For childhood sexual abuse there is no statute of limitations anymore, under 735 ILCS 5/13-202.2 as it has read since January 1, 2014. That is real. Here is the catch, and it is why we ask your birth year. The 2014 law didn't reach backward. A claim that had already expired under the old rules stayed expired, and the Illinois courts have said so more than once. The rough line is 1983: born that year or later, your claim was alive when the law changed, and you can file on age alone. For Bennett's parishes, that's nobody. The Attorney General's window runs 1963 to 1981; kids born in the '50s, '60s, '70s.

So everyone on this page is on the other path, and it is a path. Born before 1983 means a lawyer needs two more facts: when you first connected what happened to the harm it did, and what the Archdiocese said, or hid, along the way. Illinois keeps that second path open when an institution kept quiet, and this is a file in which the Archdiocese told a neighboring diocese it knew of one allegation. It also matters that the Archdiocese settled Bennett claims in 2008 without a court ever ruling they were too old. And depending on how the old twenty-year rule counts for you, a lawyer may find a claim from the late 1970s never lapsed at all. Arithmetic for them, not for a web page.

In plain words. A real path for most people from his parishes, but it turns on facts only you know and on what is in that file. It takes a conversation, not a guess.

Your situation still qualifies even if

It wasn't Bennett. Another priest at the same parish, a teacher, a coach, a volunteer; the case is against the Archdiocese either way.
You have never said it out loud to anyone.
You liked him, or your parents did. Holy Ghost gave him a second term with a parish full of people who did. It doesn't cancel anything.
A lawyer told you, years back, that it was too late. Illinois changed that law in 2014, and the Archdiocese paid on this name in 2008. Ask again.
You live in Indiana now, or Wisconsin, or Orland Park. South Holland is ten minutes from the state line; half his last parish probably does.

Where he was

He started at St. John the Baptist de la Salle in Chicago in 1966 and was there eight years, to 1974. Chicago Ridge next, Our Lady of the Ridge, 1974 to 1976. Then the Cook County Jail, as chaplain, 1976 to 1978, living at St. Joseph and St. Anne in Chicago. Mount Greenwood after that: St. Christina, 11005 S. Homan Ave., 1978 to 1980 (that parish has its own page, St. Christina survivors). He was pastor everywhere after that. St. John de la Salle, 1980 to 1989. St. Agnes in Chicago, 1989 to 1991. Our Lady of Fatima in Chicago, 1991 to 1997. And Holy Ghost in South Holland from 1997 until February 2006. One more thing, about the Attorney General's entry: it names Barrington (1967 to 1981) and Orland Park (1974 to 1981) as places of reported abuse, and neither one appears in his assignment record. If your contact with him was somewhere else, a school, a jail, a summer program, tell us anyway.

Questions people are asking

Was Father Bennett ever charged with anything?

No. The Archdiocese told the State's Attorney in March 2006 that DCFS had opened an investigation, and no charge came of it. What exists instead is the Archdiocese's own finding, on its list since September 2008, the Attorney General's entry from May 2023, and the 2008 settlement. Findings and a settlement. Not a conviction, and nothing on this page says otherwise.

What about the statute of limitations in Illinois?

Gone, since January 1, 2014, for any claim that was still alive that day. Claims that had already lapsed under the older rules are the exception, and for kids in Bennett's parishes that's nearly everyone. Those claims need discovery or concealment facts, which is the whole reason we ask whether you were born in 1983 or later and whether you ever told anyone.

Can I still sue if the priest was laicized and never convicted?

Yes, because the claim was never really against him. It's against the Archdiocese of Chicago, which assigned him, kept him, and has already settled claims about him, in 2008. The Archdiocese hasn't filed for bankruptcy. No claims deadline exists.

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 was Father Joseph Bennett?

The pastor of Holy Ghost in South Holland for nine years, and before that an Archdiocese of Chicago priest at seven earlier assignments on the South Side and in the south suburbs, going back to his ordination in 1966. Forty years, eight assignments. Removed by the Archdiocese in February 2006, resigned in 2012, laicized in 2014. And listed, in the Attorney General's 2023 report, with at least 11 reported survivors between 1963 and 1981.

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.

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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.