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

Seven years at St. William on the Northwest Side, June 1975 to March 1982, and that stretch is what the record is about. Four people have reported him, by the Illinois Attorney General's count, for things that happened between 1975 and 1978, in Chicago and Elmhurst and on trips to Michigan and New York. The Archdiocese of Chicago didn't hear about any of it, it says, until 2004. Then it moved: pulled him out of St. Fabian in Bridgeview in June 2005, and, in 2017, settled a Cook County lawsuit from a man who says he was 9 and 10 when it happened. If some part of your childhood ran through one of his parishes, this is for you.

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Long ago, you're thinking. The 1970s. Same decade as the claim the Archdiocese settled in 2017: he'd been 9 and 10 in the late 1970s, sued that June, and had it settled before the year was out. Old isn't the exception on this name. It's the normal case.
Nobody ever charged him. The Archdiocese says it reported the 2005 allegation to the Cook County State's Attorney; nothing came of it that we can find. A civil case doesn't need a prosecutor's say-so. The 2017 suit didn't have one.
He is not dead, as far as anyone has shown. He was laicized in October 2009 and in September 2018 ABC7 found him living in Lyons, around the corner from a grade school. The case you'd bring was never going to be against him anyway. It's against the Archdiocese of Chicago, which assigned him, which took the reports, and which has paid on this name.
You weren't at St. William. He was at Sacred Heart in Melrose Park before it, three South Side parishes and St. Fabian in Bridgeview after it, and the Attorney General's entry puts some of what was reported in Elmhurst and on trips to Michigan and New York.
You are asking for a brother, a husband, a friend who can't do this himself. Reach out anyway.

Father Walter Turlo: what the public record says, and when

None of what follows is ours. It's the Archdiocese's own file on him, released through survivors' lawyers in November 2014, the Archdiocese's list, the Illinois Attorney General, one court docket and the reporters who covered them, and every line links to where it came from. Turlo was never charged, never tried, never convicted. A review board's finding is that board's finding, a name on a list is that list's opinion, and a complaint is a complaint. The 2017 lawsuit was settled, not decided. The word for all of it is allegation.

June 1975 to March 1982

Ordained May 13, 1970, five years as assistant pastor at Sacred Heart in Melrose Park, then associate pastor at St. William, 2600 North Sayre, from June 1975 to March 1982. The Attorney General's entry puts the reported abuse at 1975 to 1978, in Chicago, in Elmhurst, in Michigan and in New York, plus 1977 to 1978 in Bridgeview, and a sixth entry marked unknown. Pastor of St. Mary Magdalene from 1982, administrator of Sts. Peter and Paul on Marquette Avenue from 1985, pastor of St. Mary of the Assumption from 1989 and of St. Fabian in Bridgeview from January 1996. Illinois Attorney General, Turlo entry.

March 31, 2004

The Archdiocese's own intake sheet, in the file it released in 2014, dates the first allegation to March 31, 2004: a man who said that as a boy in the St. William years Turlo massaged him over and under his clothing, had him sleep in the same bed on weekly overnights at the rectory and in hotel rooms on vacation, and once touched him deliberately in that bed. The sheet's own tally: "Approximate number of incidents of alleged abuse: numerous." Not until June 2005 was the allegation formalized, and Turlo, on September 7, 2005, denied it. Archdiocese of Chicago file on Turlo (PDF, via BishopAccountability.org).

June 4 to 6, 2005

At St. Fabian's Masses that weekend a letter from the episcopal vicar was read out. Turlo had resigned as pastor, it said, "following an allegation received by officials of the Archdiocese of Chicago that he engaged in highly inappropriate behavior with a minor approximately 30 years ago while he served as an associate pastor at St. William Parish," the allegation had been reported to the Cook County State's Attorney, and he was now living "in a monitored and restricted setting." The Sun-Times had it Monday: Turlo, 60, and a second pastor removed the same weekend, both said to be cooperating. Chicago Sun-Times, June 6, 2005, via BishopAccountability.org.

November 19, 2005 to March 23, 2006

By November 2005 there were two men. The Professional Responsibility Review Board took up the first man's account and a second man's, four incidents at St. William, and voted 5-0 that both warranted investigation. On March 18, 2006 it found "reasonable cause to suspect that the alleged misconduct occurred" and recommended Turlo be withdrawn from ministry with restrictions and monitoring; Cardinal George accepted. (The same day it found no reasonable cause on a separate allegation, from a woman, about St. Fabian in 1977 and 1978.) Five days later a St. Fabian parishioner called the chancery to say Turlo was still coming to the parish and still contacting its young boys. Archdiocese of Chicago file on Turlo (PDF).

July 22 to August 15, 2007

A 12-year-old boy spent two nights in Turlo's apartment at the Bishop Lyne Residence for retired priests in Lemont, July 22 and 23. The Archdiocese's child-abuse office called the DCFS hotline, which took it as a report of "Risk of Sexual Harm." Turlo was confined to the property, the vicar general said the Archdiocese should move him toward leaving the priesthood, and in a letter dated for August 15 Turlo wrote that the protocols had "become too constrictive" and that he was resigning from active ministry and moving in with his sister. Archdiocese of Chicago file on Turlo (PDF).

September 15, 2008 to October 2009

"Removed from Public Ministry 6/2005; Resigned 10/2008; Laicized 10/2009." That is his whole line of action on the Archdiocese's list, next to seven assignments, in the version the Archdiocese published on February 10, 2025; current status, laicized. The list is the public one of clergy with substantiated allegations of sexual abuse of a minor, and the Attorney General dates his arrival on it to September 15, 2008. The list says of itself that a substantiated finding "represents the opinion of the Archdiocese, and is not a legal judgment or determination." Archdiocese of Chicago list (PDF).

June 8, 2017, settled by 2018

In September 2018 ABC7's I-Team found Turlo living in Lyons, near a grade school. "Those are so long ago and there been resolved," he told them, "and I'm just living as a private person." ABC7 had the settlement too: the year before, the Archdiocese had settled a lawsuit over him. That was a man's suit against the Catholic Bishop of Chicago, brought through the Law Offices of Joseph Klest in Schaumburg and docketed in the Circuit Court of Cook County as 2017-L-005799. Late 1970s, 9 and 10 years old, Turlo abused him and church leadership let it happen, his complaint said, and he asked for more than $100,000. A complaint. Not a finding, and we don't read it as one. Cook County Record.

May 23, 2023

The Illinois Attorney General's Report on Catholic Clergy Child Sex Abuse in Illinois listed Walter Joseph Turlo, ordained 1970, among the 275 clerics and religious brothers with substantiated allegations in the Archdiocese of Chicago: 4 reported survivors, first report 2004, on the Archdiocese's list since September 15, 2008. One caution. The entry's status line reads removed from ministry 1994, died 2000. The Archdiocese's own list says removed June 2005 and laicized October 2009, its file dates the first report to 2004, and ABC7 spoke with him in 2018, so this page goes by those. Illinois Attorney General, Turlo entry.

We checked this on September 13, 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 Turlo is accused of

The Archdiocese of Chicago, which on paper is the Catholic Bishop of Chicago, a corporation sole, and usually the parish named beside it. Not Turlo himself. He was laicized in 2009 and, individually, he isn't where these cases go; the 2017 suit named the Catholic Bishop of Chicago and nobody else, and the Catholic Bishop of Chicago is who paid. The theory is the ordinary one: the Archdiocese put him at St. William and at four more parishes after that, and the Archdiocese is who decides what happens once somebody comes forward. On this name we owe you one honest caveat, which is that the first report didn't reach the Archdiocese until March 2004 (its own file says so), not in the 1970s or 1980s, so nobody can tell you this is a chancery that sat on letters for decades. What the file shows instead is what happened after it knew. A man withdrawn in June 2005 who was still at his old parish talking to its boys in March 2006. A 12-year-old sleeping over in July 2007, two years into monitoring, with DCFS hearing about it from the Archdiocese's own staff. Two more years after that before he was out of the priesthood.

And the Archdiocese pays on these years. It settled the 2017 Cook County suit, on late-1970s conduct, the same year it was filed, as far as the public reporting shows. On September 10, 2026 it settled nine more claims, $5.4 million, eight priests, conduct from the early 1970s to the late 1990s, out of court, and said in its own words that incidents alleged to have occurred 30 to 50 years ago are "consistent with the large majority of claims coming forward today." Turlo wasn't one of the eight. The point is the payer, not the names. It has never filed for bankruptcy, there is no claims deadline, and by its own statement it has paid more than $400 million to survivors since 2001.

One thing to be clear about. Turlo was never convicted of anything, or charged. What exists is a review board's 2006 finding of reasonable cause, a row 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 a lawsuit that ended in a settlement with no admission. 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

Born 1983 or later is the rough line for having no deadline at all, and almost nobody on this page was. Illinois took the clock off childhood sexual abuse claims on January 1, 2014, but only for claims that were still alive that day. Claims that had already run out under the old rules stayed run out. The reported conduct on Turlo is 1975 to 1978, so the boys in it were born around 1960 to 1969. The easy version, filing on age alone, is not the version for this page.

Here is the version that is. 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 you were kept from acting by threats, manipulation or fraud, by the abuser or by anyone acting for him. Illinois writes both of those into the statute, and it has a separate rule for an institution that concealed what it knew. On this name the concealment facts are thinner than on some Chicago priests, because the Archdiocese says it didn't hear until 2004, and a lawyer will tell you that plainly. What you have instead is the payer's own behavior. The Archdiocese settled the 2017 suit, late 1970s, the year it was filed, without a court ever saying it was too late. It has been settling claims of the same age this month.

In plain words. There's probably no clock for the youngest people on this page (the statute, if you want it, is 735 ILCS 5/13-202.2), and for everyone else, which is nearly everyone, there is a path that turns on facts only you have. Whether it holds is a lawyer's call. It is a twenty-minute phone conversation, not something you work out from a web page.

Your situation still qualifies even if

It wasn't Turlo. 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. Neither had the first man to report him, not until 2004, about something from 1975. Twenty-nine years he sat on it.
It didn't happen in the church. A trip, maybe, or one of those rectory overnights. The Archdiocese's own file describes exactly that.
Some lawyer told you, years back, that it was too late. Maybe he was right then. Illinois changed the law in 2014, though, and this very name, a late-1970s claim, got settled by the Archdiocese in 2017. Ask again.
You live in Wisconsin or Indiana or Arizona now. Most Northwest Side kids from those years do.

Where he was

St. William, 2600 North Sayre Avenue, Chicago, first, because he was associate pastor there from June 1975 to March 1982 and that is where the record puts the reported abuse, along with Elmhurst, and trips to Michigan and New York, all 1975 to 1978. Bridgeview shows up in the Attorney General's entry too, for 1977 and 1978, years before he ever got to St. Fabian; the Archdiocese's board looked at that one and didn't find reasonable cause. Before St. William he was at Sacred Heart in Melrose Park, 1970 to 1975, and had a chaplaincy at Triton Community College in River Grove. After it came the South Side, three parishes: St. Mary Magdalene, 1982 to 1989; Sts. Peter and Paul on Marquette Avenue, where he was administrator from 1985 to about 1986; St. Mary of the Assumption, 1989 to 1996. Then Bridgeview, St. Fabian at 8300 South Thomas Avenue, where he was pastor from January 1996 until they removed him in June 2005. Last stop, the Bishop Lyne Residence in Lemont, 2006 to 2007. That's where the 2007 overnight happened. Somewhere else? Tell us anyway.

Questions people are asking

Who was Father Walter Turlo?

Chicago priest. Ordained May 13, 1970, and from 1975 to 1982 associate pastor of St. William on the Northwest Side, which is the stretch the record is about. He went on to pastor three South Side parishes and then, from 1996, St. Fabian in Bridgeview, which is where he was in June 2005 when the Archdiocese removed him over an allegation from the St. William years, three years before his name went on the Archdiocese's list (September 2008) and four before he was laicized (October 2009).

Did Father Turlo ever get charged, or convicted of anything?

No, neither. The Archdiocese says it reported the 2005 allegation to the Cook County State's Attorney; no charge followed that we can find. What exists is the Archdiocese's review board finding of March 2006, a row on its list, which the list itself calls an opinion, the Attorney General's 2023 entry, and a 2017 civil suit the Archdiocese settled. Not one of those is a conviction. This page doesn't call them one, and won't.

Is Walter Turlo still alive?

Nobody has shown otherwise. In September 2018 ABC7 found him in Lyons and got him to talk, and the Archdiocese's list, in the version it published in February 2025, says laicized. Not deceased. The Attorney General's entry has a line reading died 2000, which the rest of the record contradicts; we treat it as an error. Either way the case is against the Archdiocese, not him.

Does Illinois still have a statute of limitations on this?

For claims that were still alive on January 1, 2014, no. Illinois removed the deadline that day and hasn't brought it back. The catch is claims that had already lapsed under the older rules, and for anyone who was a kid under Turlo in the 1970s, that's the group. Those claims need discovery facts, or facts about threats, manipulation or concealment, to get back in, which is the whole reason we ask when you were born and whether you ever told anyone.

Has the Archdiocese of Chicago settled claims about Father Turlo?

One that we can point to, and only one. ABC7 reported it in September 2018, saying the Archdiocese had settled the year before, and the docket behind it is Cook County 2017-L-005799, filed June 8, 2017, by a man suing the Catholic Bishop of Chicago over what he says Turlo did to him at 9 and 10, in the late 1970s. The amount was not made public and nothing in it was admitted. No other suit on this name has turned up in what we've read.

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.
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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.