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

Seven parishes in twenty-eight years, Northlake first, then West Pullman, then a string of them down through the south suburbs. Twenty people have reported him, by the Illinois Attorney General's count. There's a note from Cardinal Cody himself, October 1967, asking his chancellor what they were planning to do about this Father Kelly. What they did was move him. He died in June 1990, so he's been gone a long while now. The Archdiocese that did the moving hasn't gone anywhere; it's still at 835 North Rush Street.

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It was sixty years ago. Sixty-three, for the earliest of them. The two men the Attorney General calls Joe and Richard were 11 and 12 at St. John Vianney in 1962 and 1963, and the state put their accounts in a report in 2023. Old is the normal case on this name. Not the exception.
He is dead, and has been since June 1990. Nothing was ever going to be filed against him personally. The claim the Archdiocese paid on his name in 2005 was paid by the Archdiocese, and that's where any case on this page goes.
You never told a soul. Richard didn't, because Kelly told him nobody would believe a kid over a priest. Ben told a friend and a cousin, and they said Kelly had tried the same with them. The Attorney General's count is 20 people, and the Archdiocese's own claim is that the first report reached it in 1992. Two years after he died.
It didn't happen at the church. The narrative describes dinners on Grand Avenue, drive-ins, a Notre Dame game, his car, and overnights at the rectory. Those count.
You were 16, maybe 17, and there'd been drinking that night. There had been in Ben's case too. He was 17, his father had died not long before, and the report doesn't hedge on what he was. A child.
You are asking for a brother, a husband, a father in his seventies who can't make this call himself. Reach out anyway.

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

None of what follows is ours. It's the Illinois Attorney General's 2023 report and the narrative it wrote on this name, the Archdiocese's own list, and the reporters who covered the rest, and every line links to where it came from. Kelly was never charged with a crime; he died before anyone reported him to the Archdiocese, by the Archdiocese's account. What the Attorney General found, he found under his process; what the Archdiocese substantiated, it substantiated under its own. The word for everything below is allegation, except where the chancery's letters speak for themselves.

1962 to 1967

Joe and Richard, the Attorney General's narrative calls them, were altar servers at St. John Vianney in Northlake, Kelly's first parish after his ordination on April 28, 1962. He ran the altar servers there, and he'd set up a weightlifting room in the parish school. Grown men now, the two sat down with the state's investigators. They were 11, 12 and 13 at the time, 1962 and 1963. What they describe isn't complicated. Dinners out. Drive-in movies. Beer at the rectory, then an overnight there, then the abuse, in the night, in the rectory. Joe still has the sentence he was handed afterwards, and the narrative prints it: "This is a good thing, but it's just between you and I." Illinois Attorney General, Kelly narrative.

October 1967

The paper trail opens with a note, Cardinal John Cody to his chancellor, one line long: "What are you planning to do about this Father Kelly?" That's October 1967, which is the month the Archdiocese, in the Attorney General's careful phrase, "appears to have first received allegations of sexual misconduct against Kelly." The chancellor's answer was a transfer, out of Northlake and into St. Catherine of Genoa in West Pullman, and the cardinal agreed. Kelly wrote back a few months on to say "it does not seem that there has been any public scandal" from his abrupt departure, and that "there is no real problem as long as vigilance and common sense prevail." Parishioners in Northlake, Joe says, were told he'd found a better opportunity. Illinois Attorney General, Kelly narrative.

November 1968

More allegations, it appears, reached the chancery that year. Kelly wrote to Cardinal Cody asking to be allowed to prove he could be a good priest, adding, in the letter the Attorney General reproduces, "I know that I can do it. . . . If you will allow me to remain, I will seek psychiatric help immediately." He acknowledged "what a risk" the cardinal would be taking. He stayed a priest. Ben, the third man in the narrative, was a 17-year-old at St. Catherine of Genoa whose father had recently died; what the narrative describes there, a parish picnic, an afterparty at the rectory, gin, the middle of the night, happened after the transfer. The narrative's own tally, for the whole run of it, is that Kelly "abused more than 15 boys ranging in age from 11 to 17 during the 1960s and 1970s." Illinois Attorney General, Kelly narrative.

1968 to June 1990

BishopAccountability went through the archdiocesan directories and pieced together the rest of the assignments. St. Catherine of Genoa in Chicago, 1968 to 1972. St. Therese of the Infant Jesus, Chicago, 1972 to 1973, a single year. Queen of Apostles in Riverdale, 1973 to 1979. St. Kieran, Chicago Heights, 1979 to 1981. St. James in Sauk Village, 1981 to 1986. Our Lady of Knock in Calumet City, 1986 to 1990. He died on June 15 of that last year. BishopAccountability.org, Chicago assignment records.

October 27, 2005

The Archdiocese settled with 24 adults over 14 priests, and for the first time Kelly's name was public: five of the 14 had never been identified before, and he was one. The claim on his name was from 1973, at St. Therese of the Infant Jesus. No lawsuit had been filed by any of the 24; it was a year of mediation. The Archdiocese's spokesman said the settlement meant "all allegations against these priests were deemed credible," and that the parishes wouldn't be told, because the men were dead. Neither side released the total. Chicago Tribune, October 28, 2005, via BishopAccountability.org.

November 28, 2018

Thirteen years after paying on his name, the Archdiocese put Thomas Francis Kelly on its list of clergy with substantiated allegations of sexual abuse of a minor, one of ten names added that day. Until then, Chicago Catholic reported, the list had carried only priests who were alive when the first allegation came in; the four archdiocesan priests added, Kelly among them, "were all deceased when the archdiocese first received allegations against them." The Archdiocese's general counsel said it was not clear why those four had been investigated at all. Chicago Catholic, November 30, 2018.

May 23, 2023

The Illinois Attorney General's Report on Catholic Clergy Child Sex Abuse in Illinois lists Thomas Francis Kelly, ordained 1962, Archdiocese of Chicago: 20 reported survivors. Reported abuse in the 1960s in Northlake, 1967 to 1972 in Chicago, and 1979 in Chicago Heights. Seven Illinois assignments, a place on the Archdiocese's list dating from November 28, 2018, dead in 1990. And under "diocese claim of first report," the entry says 1992. Illinois Attorney General, Kelly entry.

September 10, 2026

Not about Kelly, but about the payer. The Archdiocese settled nine claims, $5.4 million, out of court, over eight dead priests, for conduct alleged between the early 1970s and the late 1990s, and said in its statement that "incidents alleged to have occurred 30 to 50 years ago" are "consistent with the large majority of claims coming forward today." It also said it has paid more than $400 million to survivors. ABC7 Chicago, September 10, 2026.

We checked this on September 13, 2026, and the newest thing in it is from September 10, 2026. When something new gets filed or decided, it goes in here within 72 hours, with the link.

Who answers for what Father Kelly is accused of

Not Kelly. He's been dead since June 1990, and a dead priest's estate isn't where any of these cases go. They go where the 2005 money came from, which is the Archdiocese of Chicago (on paper, the Catholic Bishop of Chicago, a corporation sole) and, usually, the parish named right beside it. The theory is short. The Archdiocese assigned him. By its own records, as the Attorney General read them, it had allegations in hand in October 1967 and answered with a transfer to West Pullman. It had more by November 1968, when Kelly himself wrote asking to be kept on and offering to see a psychiatrist, and it kept him, for five more parishes and twenty-two more years. That is the knowledge element, and it's in the cardinal's handwriting.

Two things worth knowing. The Archdiocese has never fought this name in a courtroom; it paid, in October 2005, on a 1973 claim, before any suit was filed. The Attorney General counts 20 people who've reported him, so there are people that settlement didn't reach. And the Archdiocese can pay. It has never filed for bankruptcy, there's no claims deadline, and by its own statement it has paid more than $400 million to survivors. What to do with a 1967 note from a cardinal is a lawyer's job. Yours is one phone call.

One thing to be plain about. Kelly was never charged with a crime, never tried, never convicted. What exists is the Attorney General's 2023 entry and narrative, a row on the Archdiocese's list (Kelly, Thomas Francis, ordained 4/28/1962, the seven parishes, "Deceased 6/1990," still there on the version published February 10, 2025), which the Archdiocese itself calls an opinion and not a legal judgment, and a settlement the Archdiocese chose to pay. Each is exactly what it is. We don't dress it up, and a lawyer won't either.

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

If you were born in 1983 or later, there's probably no deadline at all. That's because of what Illinois did on January 1, 2014: any childhood sexual abuse claim that was still alive on that date lost its clock, for good. The catch is that word, alive. Claims that had already run out under the old rules stayed run out. And Kelly died in June 1990, so almost nobody who was a kid around him was born as late as 1983. The easy version, filing on age alone, is not the version for this page.

Here's the version that is. Born before 1983 and it 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 on, when a daughter is born, say, which is what Joe describes. And whether the Archdiocese knew and kept quiet. Illinois keeps a separate door open when the institution concealed what it knew, and on this name the concealment facts aren't a theory. They're a cardinal's note from October 1967, a transfer, a 1968 letter begging for one more chance, and a parish told he'd found a better opportunity. An Illinois appeals court upheld a verdict on exactly that kind of path in 2011, for 1970s conduct in the Diocese of Belleville, where the diocese had moved a priest it knew about without warning anyone. Other courts have gone the other way when nobody pleaded concealment. It's fact by fact.

In plain words. There's probably no clock for anyone on this page born in 1983 or after (the statute, if you want it, is 735 ILCS 5/13-202.2), and a real path for everyone else, but which path, and whether it holds for you, is a lawyer's call on facts only you have. Not something you settle from a web page, and not something we'd promise.

Your situation still qualifies even if

It wasn't Kelly. 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. Richard didn't for decades, until his wife got him to a psychologist. Most of the 20 hadn't.
Altar server or not, it doesn't matter. One dinner, one ride in his car, one night at the rectory, that's plenty of reason to ask.
Some lawyer told you, years back, that you'd missed it. That was before 2014, when Illinois changed the law. Ask again.
You still go to Mass. Joe did; he sat on a cardinal's committee.
You live in Indiana or Wisconsin or Florida now. Most south-suburban kids from those years do.

Where he was

Seven parishes. The first two, St. John Vianney in Northlake (1962 to 1968; the weightlifting room and the rectory) and St. Catherine of Genoa in West Pullman, Chicago (1968 to 1972), are the ones the Attorney General's narrative is about. Then a single year, 1972 to 1973, at St. Therese of the Infant Jesus, Little Flower, in Chicago, which is where the 2005 claim came from. Then the south suburbs for the rest of it: Queen of Apostles in Riverdale, 1973 to 1979; St. Kieran in Chicago Heights, 1979 to 1981, and the Attorney General's entry puts reported abuse in Chicago Heights in 1979; St. James in Sauk Village, 1981 to 1986; and Our Lady of Knock in Calumet City from 1986 until 1990. Those years are BishopAccountability's, worked out from the archdiocesan directories. The Attorney General and the Archdiocese name the same seven parishes and give no years at all. Then the places that weren't parishes: an Italian restaurant on Grand Avenue, drive-ins, a Notre Dame game, his car. If your contact with him was somewhere else, tell us anyway. The Archdiocese page for every Chicago parish is at archdiocese-of-chicago-survivors.

Questions people are asking

Who was Father Thomas Kelly?

A Chicago priest. Ordained April 28, 1962, and moved through seven parishes over the next twenty-eight years, Northlake and West Pullman first, then Little Flower, Riverdale, Chicago Heights, Sauk Village and Calumet City, until his death in June 1990. What matters most for this page is the Attorney General's count, 20 reported survivors, and the Attorney General's finding that the chancery had allegations about him in October 1967 and transferred him.

The Archdiocese keeps a list. Is Kelly on it?

He is. The Archdiocese added ten names on November 28, 2018, and his was one of them. The list is careful about what that means, and so are we: a substantiated finding "represents the opinion of the Archdiocese, and is not a legal judgment or determination." The Attorney General lists him separately. Neither is a court finding.

Was Father Kelly ever charged with a crime?

No. Nothing we've read shows a criminal charge, ever, and by the Archdiocese's own account the first report about him arrived in 1992, two years after he died. What exists is civil: the claim the Archdiocese paid in 2005, its list, the Attorney General's entry and narrative. Which is where this lives.

Can I still sue if Father Kelly is dead?

Yes, and that's because the case was never really about him. It's the Archdiocese, usually with the parish, that gets named. The same Archdiocese that in October 2005 paid on a 1973 claim naming him, fifteen years after his death, with no lawsuit on file. No bankruptcy there, and no claims deadline hanging over anyone.

Am I too late under Illinois law?

Maybe not. It turns on your birth year and on what the Archdiocese knew, and when. Illinois removed the deadline on January 1, 2014 for every claim that was still alive that day; the ones that had already lapsed need discovery facts or concealment facts to reopen, and for Kelly's years that's nearly everyone. A 1967 note from Cardinal Cody asking what to do about him is exactly the kind of fact a lawyer looks for. A lawyer decides, not this page.

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.
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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.