If you were a kid in the parish under Father Thomas Job, we believe you.

Four parishes over twenty-one years, Northlake, then La Grange, then Libertyville, then Ingleside, and the whole time the Archdiocese was keeping a file on him. A 1975 arrest is in that file. So is a confession, from 1983, and a memo from 1990 that calls him a high risk. It moved him anyway. The Illinois Attorney General counts 22 people who have come forward. If your years in one of those parishes were his years, this page is about you.

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Looking for the Archdiocese page? Archdiocese of Chicago survivors.

This applies to you no matter what

He is dead. He died in March 2021, according to the Archdiocese's own list. The claims that get paid on this name were never against him; they are against the Archdiocese that assigned him, and it is still there, still settling, this month.
It happened at his cottage, or on a trip, not at the parish. The Attorney General lists Fox Lake, Antioch, South Dakota, Canada and four countries in Europe among the places named. The parish is where it started. Where it went changes nothing.
You told the principal, or the pastor, or your parents told somebody. At St. John Vianney the principal took it to the pastor and then to the Archdiocese and, in her words, couldn't get anyone to listen. If that was you, say so on the call, because it counts for more than you'd guess.
It was the early '70s and you decided a long time ago that nobody would care now. Except the people the Archdiocese settled with in 2005 were describing things from as far back as 1957, and as late as 1987. Long ago is what these cases are made of.
He was a big deal to your family. He flew a plane, he took the boys camping, your parents thought the world of him. That is what every file like this one says on page one.
You aren't asking for yourself. A brother, a husband, a friend who was in Northlake or Ingleside back then and can't make this call. Make it for him.

Father Thomas Job: what the public record says, and when

None of what follows is ours. It's the Archdiocese's own file, released under a settlement in 2014, the Illinois Attorney General, the Archdiocese's list, and the reporters who covered them, and every line links to its source. Job was never charged with a crime against a child. His only conviction is for theft, from his employer, in 2011, and it has nothing to do with any of this. The word for the rest is allegation, except where the Archdiocese and the Attorney General use their own word, which is substantiated.

1975

A boy at St. John Vianney in Northlake went to the police. Job was arrested. No charges followed, and he was moved to St. Cletus in La Grange. The school principal, a nun, later told the Archdiocese she had reported him to the pastor, who didn't believe her, and then to the Archdiocese, where she "couldn't get anyone ... to listen," and that she resigned over it. Illinois Attorney General, narrative.

November 1983

The vicar for priests recorded a report that Job "had engaged in sexual activities" with a 17-year-old parishioner from St. Cletus. Job admitted it and wrote the young man an apology. He was ordered to avoid young people, put under monthly supervision, and left in ministry at St. Joseph in Libertyville. Cardinal Bernardin was told. Libertyville Patch, January 2014.

December 1987 to June 1990

A December 1987 memo in his file says Job "is still taking kids up to his cottage at Fox Lake." He was assigned to St. Bede in Ingleside the next month. A June 29, 1990 memo from the vicar's office says Job "is considered a high risk both regarding liability and scandal." He stayed at St. Bede another year. Archdiocese of Chicago file on Rev. Thomas Job, released January 2014.

November 22, 1991

That's the day Cardinal Bernardin accepted Job's resignation from the active priesthood, effective immediately. He also thanked him for his years of service. Job's letter said the Cardinal had "been aware for years of my personal problem." He went to work as an alcohol counselor for the Lake County Health Department. Illinois Attorney General, narrative.

October 27, 2005

The Archdiocese settled with 24 adults who accused 14 priests, Job among them, after more than a year of mediation. No lawsuit had been filed. His name became public that day, from the survivors' lawyer, not the Archdiocese, and the Archdiocese's spokesman told the Tribune the five newly named priests were dead and their parishes would not be told. Job was alive, and working for Lake County. The pastor at St. Bede wrote to his parishioners about it on November 6. Chicago Tribune, October 28, 2005.

June 29, 2011

A Lake County judge sentenced Job to a year in jail, $39,875 in restitution and a $25,000 fine after he pleaded guilty, on February 15, to felony theft: pay for hours he never worked at the Health Department. He was 67. It's the only conviction on his record and it has nothing to do with children; his lawyer, in fact, told the court that the 2005 abuse allegations were "hearsay and innuendo." Daily Herald, July 2, 2011.

January 21, 2014

The Archdiocese released his personnel file, with those of 29 other priests, under a settlement. The memos above are in it. Daily Herald.

May 23, 2023

He's on both lists. The Illinois Attorney General's report on Catholic clergy abuse came out that day and gives 22 reported survivors under his name, a first report to the Archdiocese in 1983, and the places: Mundelein, Northlake, La Grange, Antioch, Fox Lake, abroad. The Archdiocese's own list says less. Resigned October 1991. Laicized June 2010. Deceased March 2021 (that's the February 2025 edition of the list). Illinois Attorney General, Thomas Job.

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 Job is accused of

Not Job. He's dead, and he had nothing anyway; the man was fined $25,000 in 2011 and the judge called it rare. The Archdiocese of Chicago is the defendant in these cases, on paper the Catholic Bishop of Chicago, with the parish usually named beside it. The theory is the plain one. An archdiocese assigns priests. It knew about this one. Its own file says a boy went to the police in 1975, that Job confessed in 1983, that in 1987 he was still taking kids to the cottage, that in 1990 its own vicar called him a high risk, and after every one of those it sent him to another parish full of families who were told nothing. That is what a negligence claim looks like when it's written down by the defendant.

The Archdiocese has never admitted liability for Job. What it has done is settle, once that we know of, in 2005, without a lawsuit ever being filed, and it put him on its list in 2006. Its spokesman also told the newspaper he was dead that week, when he wasn't. A lawyer will know what to make of that. You don't have to.

There are 22 people the Attorney General knows about. The principal at St. John Vianney told the Archdiocese there were about 20 from her school alone. Either way, the Archdiocese has paid on this name before and is still paying on others, $5.4 million across nine claims this September. It has not filed for bankruptcy and there is no deadline to file a claim. One case at a time.

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 left under 735 ILCS 5/13-202.2, as long as your claim was still alive on January 1, 2014. Illinois doesn't bring dead claims back.

Here is what that means for Job's parishes, and it's why we ask your birth year. The rough line is 1983. Born that year or later, and your claim was still breathing when the law changed, so you can file on your age and nothing else. Most people who were kids under Job were born before 1983; his last parish assignment ended in 1991. For you it turns on two things. When you first understood that what happened is the cause of the harm you carry. And what the parish or the Archdiocese knew and kept quiet, because Illinois keeps a separate door open when an institution conceals, and this file is about as thick a record of that as you'll find. A 1975 arrest. A 1983 confession. A high-risk memo. Three more parishes.

So the honest answer for most of you is: probably not the easy path, possibly a real one anyway, and a lawyer has to look at your dates. It's a conversation, not a form.

Your situation still qualifies even if

It wasn't Job. Another priest, a teacher, a coach at one of these parishes. The case is against the Archdiocese either way.
You went to a lawyer in the 1990s and heard "too late." Different law now. Illinois rewrote it in 2014, so ask again.
You never told anyone. Most of the 22 hadn't, for decades.
You told someone and got nowhere. So did the principal.
You stayed Catholic. Plenty of people in these cases did.
You moved away. Most kids from Northlake and Ingleside did.

Where he was

St. John Vianney in Northlake, July 1970 to June 1976, his first assignment · St. Cletus in La Grange, 1976 to 1982 · St. Joseph in Libertyville, 1983 to a leave in 1987 · St. Bede in Ingleside, 1988 to his resignation in 1991 · Santa Maria del Popolo in Mundelein, where he was a deacon before ordination in 1969 and 1970 · and the places that weren't parishes: his cottage at Fox Lake, a house in Wisconsin, camping trips, trips to South Dakota, Canada and Europe. If your contact with him was somewhere else, tell us anyway.

Questions people are asking

Was Father Job ever charged with abusing a child?

No. He was arrested in Northlake in 1975 after a boy went to the police, and the Archdiocese moved him instead. The only crime he was ever convicted of is felony theft, in 2011, for pay he didn't earn. So everything about children on this page is an allegation, or the Archdiocese's and the Attorney General's word, which is substantiated.

Who was Father Thomas Job?

A priest of the Archdiocese of Chicago. Ordained 1970, and he spent all of it, through his resignation in 1991, in four parishes: Northlake, La Grange, Libertyville, Ingleside. After that he was laicized (2010), pleaded guilty to stealing from the Lake County Health Department (2011), and died, in March 2021. The Attorney General's count for him is 22 reported survivors, and he's been on the Archdiocese's own list since 2006.

Can I still sue if Father Job is dead?

The cases were never really about him. They're against the Archdiocese of Chicago, which assigned him and kept the file, and which settled with his accusers in 2005 and is paying on other claims this year, years after his death in 2021.

I was told Illinois has a deadline for this. Is that still true?

Not if your claim was still alive on January 1, 2014. That's the day the statute of limitations for child sexual abuse came off in Illinois. Older claims are the catch, and most of Job's parishes are older claims. Those need discovery facts or concealment facts to reopen, and this file is full of concealment facts. That's the whole reason we ask when you were born.

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.

Will anyone find out I came forward?

Not from us. Your answers go to one person at ME2. The 2005 settlement was reached without anyone's name in a court file, and cases that are filed are brought under John Doe names. Nothing is filed unless you say so.

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.