If you were a kid in the parish under Father Robert Becker, we believe you.

He was the associate pastor who took boys to the trailer at Woodhaven Lakes. Seventh, eighth, ninth grade, seven or eight weekends a year, often with Father Ken Ruge along. The Archdiocese wrote that down in 1986, and the state of Illinois counted at least 35 people who eventually said what happened. If one of them was you, or your brother, this page is where to start.

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6 questions. Your answers are private and go to one person.

Looking for the Archdiocese page? Archdiocese of Chicago survivors.

This applies to you no matter what

He is dead. He died October 22, 1989, at 50, still a judge on the Archdiocese's marriage tribunal. Nobody is suing his estate; every claim paid so far was paid by the Archdiocese of Chicago, and it is still there.
Your parents let you go. They signed off on the trailer trips, sometimes asked him to take you. The Archdiocese's own memo says so about a lot of families. It changes nothing.
It was Father Ruge, or it was both of them, and you can't sort out which. Say that on the call. The Archdiocese's review board found against both men, and its files treat them together.
Somebody told the parish. In February 1986 parents at St. Clement went to the school principal, and she called DCFS. If that was your family, it is on the record already.
You never said a word. Not to your parents, not to a priest, not to anyone. Most of the 35 didn't either, for twenty or thirty years.
You're asking for a brother or an old friend from the parish who can't make this call himself. Start it for him.

Father Robert Becker: what the public record says, and when

None of this is ours. Most of it is the Archdiocese of Chicago's own personnel file on him, 176 pages, released in January 2014; the rest is the Illinois Attorney General, the Archdiocese's list, and the reporters who covered the settlements. Every line links. He was never charged with anything and never admitted anything; he died in 1989, before any of it was public. A review board's or a state report's finding is that body's finding. The word for the rest is allegation.

June 30, 1965 to 1986

Ordained April 29, 1965, and sent that summer to Queen of Martyrs in Evergreen Park as an assistant, until November 1, 1972. Two years of canon law in Rome, then Our Lady of the Snows on the Southwest Side from July 1974 and St. Clement in Lincoln Park from November 26, 1975. All the while he worked at the Metropolitan Tribunal, the Archdiocese's marriage court, rising to Officialis, the chief judge, on January 1, 1984. Archdiocese of Chicago file on Rev. Robert C. Becker, released January 2014.

February 28 to November 7, 1986

Parents at St. Clement met with the school principal and the parish social worker about their sons; the principal made a report to DCFS. The Vicar for Priests confronted Becker the same day. His memo describes a house trailer at Woodhaven Lakes, owned by Father Kenneth Ruge, where Becker "has taken many boys from the parish on overnight trips," ages "7th through 9th grade," and a mandate: never bring a boy under 18 to the trailer, curtail involvement with children. He went on sick leave, resigned as Officialis on October 23, and on November 7 Cardinal Bernardin appointed him a full-time tribunal judge through January 1, 1990, in residence at St. Gertrude in Edgewater "with the faculties of an associate pastor." Archdiocese file, Vicar for Priests memo of March 10, 1986 and the Cardinal's letter of November 7, 1986.

November 29, 1999

Ten years after his death on October 22, 1989, the Archdiocese's Professional Fitness Review Board reviewed a new allegation and found "reasonable cause to suspect that Reverend Robert Becker engaged in sexual misconduct with a minor." The administrator's note says the details "are consistent with previous allegations." A 2005 letter over Cardinal George's signature tells one family the board had determined that both Becker and Ruge "engaged in sexual abuse of minors." Archdiocese file, Review Board letter of November 29, 1999.

October 3, 2003

Slightly more than $8 million is what the Archdiocese paid, to 15 adults, over abuse by 11 priests between 1954 and 1991. Becker was one of the eleven named; so was Ruge. Individual amounts? Anywhere from $200,000 to $1.7 million, and the article doesn't say which was tied to Becker. Settlements, all of them. Not judgments. Chicago Tribune, October 3, 2003.

March 20, 2006

The date, by the Attorney General's record, that the Archdiocese put his name on its public list of clergy with substantiated allegations of sexual abuse of a minor. The list's entry today reads: Becker, Robert Charles; ordained 4/29/1965; Queen of Martyrs, Our Lady of the Snows, St. Clement, St. Gertrude; restricted 3/1986; deceased 10/1989. Archdiocese of Chicago, list of clergy with substantiated allegations (February 10, 2025).

August 12, 2008

A second group of settlements with his name in it: $12,675,000 to 16 people, 11 priests, and the Archdiocese's own release lists "Robert C. Becker, deceased in 1989" among them. Fourteen more claims had settled the May before for $6.65 million with Becker and Ruge both named, and six more, four priests including Becker, settled in mediation in July 2009. Archdiocese of Chicago news release, August 12, 2008.

January 21, 2014

Under a settlement, the Archdiocese released the personnel files of 30 priests, Becker's among them. Reporting on the files: "The late priest Robert Becker, who at times was accused of abusing in tandem with the late priest Kenneth Ruge, was moved following allegations," and across the 6,000 pages there was little sign that allegations were reported to law enforcement when they came in. Illinois Public Media, January 21, 2014.

May 23, 2023

The Illinois Attorney General's report on Catholic clergy child sex abuse gave Robert Charles Becker his own entry: at least 35 reported survivors; reported abuse in Galena 1962 to 1963, Chicago 1969 to 1986, Evergreen Park 1970 to 1971, Colorado in the late 1970s, Woodhaven 1976 to 1987, a Diocese of Rockford parish 1979 to 1980, Berwyn 1984; first report to the diocese 1986; restricted 1986; died 1989. Illinois Attorney General, Becker 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 Becker is accused of

Not him. He has been dead since 1989, and none of these cases is a claim against a dead priest's estate. They are against the Archdiocese of Chicago, which ordained him, assigned him, and kept him. It has paid on his name four times that we can point to, 2003, 2007, 2008 and 2009, every time as a settlement, never once admitting anything.

The theory is plain enough. An archdiocese decides where a priest goes and what he is allowed near. In February 1986 the Archdiocese was told, by parents and a school principal, what was happening on the Woodhaven trips. It wrote a mandate. Then, that November, it named him a full-time judge and gave him residence at a parish with an associate pastor's faculties, and that is where he was when he died. The Attorney General dates the reported abuse at Woodhaven through 1987. What the Archdiocese knew, and when, is the whole case, and a good deal of it is in its own handwriting.

One thing to have straight. Father Kenneth Ruge, who owned the trailer, was an associate at St. Leonard in Berwyn from 1979 to 1985 and has a record of his own, 24 reported survivors on the state's count. If your years were at St. Leonard, that parish's page is the better place to start. Same defendant either way.

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

Illinois took the deadline off in 2014. Since January 1 of that year, 735 ILCS 5/13-202.2 has had no statute of limitations for childhood sexual abuse, so long as the claim was still alive on that day. That is the rule for anyone born in 1983 or later, and it is why we ask. It's also, if we're honest, a rule that fits almost nobody on this page, because the reported conduct runs 1962 to 1987, and a Queen of Martyrs kid in 1970 or a St. Clement kid in 1985 was born in the 1950s, 60s or 70s.

So, the older rule. Roughly: twenty years, but counted from the day you first understood two things at once, that you had been abused and that the abuse is where the harm you carry came from. Not twenty years from the abuse itself. There is a second piece too, a tolling rule, that stops that clock for as long as an institution is hiding what it knew. February 1986 is when the Archdiocese was told; that November it reappointed him. Its own file says so. Discovery and concealment, then, for most of you, not age. A real path; the Archdiocese has settled on it before.

One thing to think about before you call, because a lawyer will ask: when did you first connect the abuse to the harm, and did anyone at the parish, or the Archdiocese, ever say a word to you about it? That's the conversation. Not a thing a web page gets to decide.

Your situation still qualifies even if

It wasn't Becker. It was Ruge, or another priest at the parish, or a teacher. The claim is against the Archdiocese either way.
It wasn't at church. The trailer, maybe, or a trip out of state, or the rectory.
You've never once said it out loud. You may not even have a word for it yet.
You stayed Catholic. You still go. A lot of the people in these cases do.
Somebody, years ago, told you it was too late. Illinois changed the law in 2014, and the older rule has two doors. Ask again.
You live in Indiana, Wisconsin, Colorado, anywhere. Most of the kids from those parishes moved.

Where he was

Queen of Martyrs, Evergreen Park, assistant, June 1965 to November 1972 · Our Lady of the Snows, Chicago, 1974 to 1975 · St. Clement, Lincoln Park, associate pastor, November 1975 to 1986 · St. Gertrude, Edgewater, in residence, November 1986 to 1989 · the trailer at Woodhaven Lakes near Sublette, Lee County, and the trips out of state · the Galena, Rockford-diocese, Berwyn and Colorado entries on the Attorney General's list. Somewhere else? Tell us anyway.

Questions people are asking

Who was Father Robert Becker?

A Chicago kid, Quigley, Mundelein, ordained in 1965 and sent to Queen of Martyrs in Evergreen Park for seven years. Then Rome for canon law, and from 1974 on a marriage-court priest, associate at Our Lady of the Snows and then St. Clement while he rose to chief judge of the Metropolitan Tribunal in 1984. Dead five years later, October 22, 1989, at 50. And on the state's count, the Attorney General's 2023 report, at least 35 people who reported abuse by him.

Who at the Archdiocese knew, and when?

February 1986, by its own paper. The 28th: parents at St. Clement went to the school principal about their sons, and she called DCFS. The Vicar for Priests confronted Becker that same day, and the mandate was no boys under 18 at the Woodhaven trailer. Then November, and the Cardinal made him a full-time tribunal judge, in residence at St. Gertrude with an associate pastor's faculties. None of that is our reading of it; it's the Archdiocese's own file, released in 2014.

Did Father Becker ever face criminal charges?

No. A St. Clement principal reported to DCFS in February 1986, and the Archdiocese's file says nothing about police after that. He died in October 1989, before any of it was public. Everything on this page is a review board's finding, a state report's finding, or a settlement, and we say which.

Is it too late? Illinois had a statute of limitations.

Had. Illinois dropped it on January 1, 2014, though only for claims still alive that day. And that's the catch for most of you: kids of the 1960s, 70s and 80s sit on the older rule, twenty years, but counted from when you first understood the harm, with the clock stopped while an institution hid what it knew. So the 1986 file matters, a lot. Whether it carries you is a question for a lawyer. Not a web page.

Can I still sue if Father Becker is dead?

The cases were never against him. They are against the Archdiocese of Chicago, which assigned him and kept him after February 1986, and which settled claims naming him in 2003, 2007, 2008 and 2009. Whether yours can be brought turns on when you were born and what happened, which is what the questions above sort out.

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.