What happened to you at St. Christina was not okay.

St. Christina on Homan Avenue, in Mount Greenwood. The church, the rectory, the school, the altar servers' room. If you were a kid there any time from 1978 to 1993, and something happened that you have never quite put down, then yes. This is about you. Two men who'd been students there in the 1980s sued in November 2025. A third man had, back in 2012. The Archdiocese of Chicago's own file on the pastor from those years was made public in 2014, and the question a lawyer asks now is what that file shows the Archdiocese knew, and when.

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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

You aren't one of the three who've sued, the two from November 2025 or the one from 2012. Nobody expects you to be. The Attorney General counted 40 reported survivors of that one pastor, across every parish he was sent to. Nine of the reports in the Archdiocese's own file come from his St. Christina years alone.
You never told a soul. Or you told somebody and it went nowhere. In 1994 the parish was told the pastor had left on a sabbatical. The Archdiocese admitted 21 months later that wasn't why.
You served Mass but never went to the school. The man who sued in 2012? An altar server. So, the record says, were most of the boys in the file.
It was forty years ago and your birthday is before 1983. Same as nearly every St. Christina kid from back then, and same as the men who filed in 2012 and 2025. Illinois gave them a path. Details below.
You still live in Mount Greenwood, or your parents do, and you don't want the neighborhood to know. Nobody on this page will say your name. That's the whole point of the first call.
You're a wife, a brother, a grown son asking for someone who won't pick up the phone himself. Reach out anyway.

St. Christina: what the public record says, and when

None of what's below is ours. It comes from the Archdiocese of Chicago's own personnel file, which it released in 2014, from the Illinois Attorney General, from complaints filed in court, and from the reporters who covered Mount Greenwood in 1994, 2012 and 2025. Every line links to its source. Where a fact is an allegation in a complaint we say a complaint alleges it, because that is all it is until a court says more; the priest named below was never charged with a crime and died in 2000.

1978 to 1993

Start with the directories, linked here. They put Joseph R. Bennett at St. Christina for two years, 1978 to 1980. On July 1, 1980 John W. Curran came in as pastor and stayed, right up until his resignation early in 1993. So the whole window this page covers, between the two of them. And both of them, today, are on the Archdiocese of Chicago's list of clergy with substantiated allegations; Bennett went on to be a pastor elsewhere, was removed by the Archdiocese in 2006, laicized in 2014. BishopAccountability.org, Chicago assignment records.

November 10, 1990

The Archdiocese had received anonymous allegations about Curran in 1990, about abuse 18 to 30 years earlier at his previous assignments. His personnel file, made public in January 2014, records a meeting that day between the Cardinal and the Vicar for Priests at which it was agreed the Cardinal would make no reference to knowing of the allegations. Three weeks later a bishop wrote "we can consider this matter closed." Curran stayed at St. Christina two more years. The same file lists nine reports, made to the Archdiocese between 1994 and 2011, describing abuse of St. Christina boys beginning in years from 1980 to 1987, most of it in the rectory. Archdiocese personnel file, timeline with the Archdiocese's page numbers.

March 26, 1993

None of what follows was told to St. Christina parishioners at the time. On March 26, 1993, a month after Curran left the parish, the Archdiocese's Review Board found "reasonable cause to suspect" that he had engaged in sexual misconduct with a minor; that July a second-stage review described "a disturbing pattern of sexual misconduct with boys," and in August the Cardinal barred him from being alone with anyone under eighteen. The new pastor arrived that July. The parish's own history says only that Curran led it for thirteen years. Assignment and file timeline, with the Review Board date.

November 13, 1994

At Sunday Masses, the new pastor told St. Christina parishioners that two men had come to the Archdiocese in August saying Curran abused them as boys at the parish between 1986 and 1990. The Archdiocese's spokeswoman confirmed that Curran had actually been removed in February 1993 over the earlier allegations, and that the parish had been told he was on a sabbatical because that abuse hadn't happened at St. Christina. The Cook County State's Attorney had been notified too. No charges, then or ever; he died in March 2000. Daily Southtown, November 22, 1994.

March 20, 2006

March 20, 2006 is when Curran's name went onto the Archdiocese's published list of archdiocesan priests with substantiated allegations of sexual abuse of a minor, where it remains. Pull up the list as it stands now, dated February 10, 2025, and you'll find St. Christina among his assignments, "Removed from Public Ministry 12/1994," deceased March 2000. Bennett's on it too, a few lines away: monitored from January 2003, removed February 2006, laicized August 2014. Archdiocese of Chicago, list of clergy with substantiated allegations.

April 24, 2012

In 2011, a man says, a memory came back to him. In April 2012 he sued the Archdiocese as John W. Doe, in the Circuit Court of Cook County, alleging he'd been an altar server at St. Christina, 11005 S. Homan Ave., that Curran abused him in 1987 when he was a child, and that the Archdiocese already had reports about Curran before then. The Archdiocese said it had not yet seen the suit. CBS Chicago.

May 23, 2023

The Illinois Attorney General's report on Catholic clergy abuse gave Curran an entry: 40 reported survivors, abuse reported from 1949 into the 1980s, St. Christina among the assignments, the Archdiocese's own date of first report 1990. Bennett has an entry too: at least 11 reported survivors, St. Christina among his assignments. Nothing on his page ties a report to St. Christina itself, and we don't say otherwise. Illinois Attorney General, Curran entry.

November 24, 2025

Three complaints went in that day. Two of them, both against the Archdiocese of Chicago, concern St. Christina; the third, a different priest at a different school. The St. Christina complaints allege that Curran groomed two St. Christina Catholic School and Parish students in the 1980s and brought them to his rectory bedroom, where, they say, he abused them repeatedly, and that the Archdiocese had "expressed notice that Fr. Curran had harmed children" by 1979, which is before it made him pastor of a parish with a large school attached. Negligence and civil conspiracy are the counts, compensatory damages the ask, and the Archdiocese, asked, declined to comment. CBS Chicago.

We checked this on September 11, 2026, and the newest thing in it is from November 24, 2025. When something new gets filed or decided, it goes in here within 72 hours, with the link.

Who can be held responsible in a St. Christina lawsuit

Not the priest, who died in 2000 without ever being charged, but the Archdiocese of Chicago. Look at what's been filed, 2012 and then 2025: the defendant every time is the Archdiocese, because it owned the parish, it ran the school, it chose the pastor and it kept the file. That is the part most people don't know they can do. The theory is plain. An institution that puts a man in charge of a parish, a grade school and its altar servers owes those kids ordinary care. If it had reason to know he was a danger to boys and put him there anyway, or left him there after it learned more, the law calls that negligent supervision and retention. The November 2025 complaints go a step further and plead civil conspiracy: that the moving and the silence were a choice.

What makes St. Christina unusual is how much of the knowing is on paper already. The Archdiocese's own file, released under a 2014 settlement, shows anonymous allegations in 1990, a meeting that November at which the Cardinal would make no reference to knowing of them, a bishop calling the matter closed, a Review Board finding in March 1993, and a parish told it had been a sabbatical. The 2025 complaints say the notice goes back further, to 1979. That is an allegation, and it's the one a lawyer will want to prove. A second priest on the Archdiocese's list, Bennett, was at the parish from 1978 to 1980; no public report is tied to St. Christina, and we don't claim one. One honest caveat, and the deadline section below spells it out: if you were born before 1983, and nearly everyone from these years was, the case turns on discovery and concealment facts, the kind only you know, which is why the first conversation is with a person and not a form.

Your deadline: the Illinois statute of limitations for what happened at St. Christina

Illinois took the deadline off in 2014. For childhood sexual abuse there is no statute of limitations anymore (735 ILCS 5/13-202.2). That is the good news, and it is real. Here's the catch, and it's 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; Illinois courts have said so more than once, which leaves a rough line at 1983: born that year or later, your claim was still alive when the law changed, and you can file on age alone. Which, for St. Christina's Curran years, is almost nobody; the record covers 1980 to 1990, kids born in the '60s and '70s, mostly.

It doesn't shut the door, being born before 1983. It 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 parish where the Archdiocese's own spokeswoman said in 1994 that the parish had been given a reason that wasn't the reason. The men who filed in 2012 and 2025 were all on this path.

In plain words. For a few St. Christina kids there is no clock at all. For most there may still be a way, but it turns on facts only you know and on what is in that file. Either way the answer takes a conversation, not a guess from a web page.

Your situation still qualifies even if

You told a nun, a teacher, your mother, the new pastor. Or you told nobody. Both are in the record already.
It wasn't the pastor. A different priest, a teacher, a coach, a volunteer; the case is against the Archdiocese either way.
You still go to Mass there, or your parents do. St. Christina is open, the school is open, and none of this is about the people in the pews.
You liked him. A lot of Mount Greenwood did; the 1994 story is full of people saying so. It doesn't cancel anything.
You live in Indiana now, or Wisconsin, or Beverly, or Orland Park. Same page, same call.

Facilities covered

St. Christina church and rectory at 11005 S. Homan Ave., Mount Greenwood · St. Christina School on the same block, still open, PreK3 through eighth grade · the altar servers and any parish program run out of the rectory in those years. Maybe it was one of Curran's earlier parishes instead: St. Albert the Great in Burbank, St. Catherine of Siena in Oak Park, Quigley South. Or one of Bennett's later ones, St. John de la Salle, St. Agnes, Our Lady of Fatima, Holy Ghost in South Holland. The questions still work. Answer them and say where on the call.

Questions people are asking

Can I sue St. Christina church for what happened there?

In practice you sue the Archdiocese of Chicago, which owns St. Christina, appointed its pastor and holds the file on him. Former St. Christina kids have done exactly that, in 2012 and in November 2025. Whether a lawyer will take your claim depends on what happened, when you were born and what you remember about learning of the harm. That's what the questions above sort out.

The priest is dead. Can I still bring a claim?

Yes. The claims that matter are against the Archdiocese of Chicago, which is very much still here, has not filed for bankruptcy and has no claims deadline. The men who filed in November 2025 did it a full 25 years after his death.

What will a sexual abuse lawyer cost me?

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.

Illinois statute of limitations for child sexual abuse: is there one?

Not for claims that were still alive on January 1, 2014; that day, the clock came off. Claims that had already lapsed under the older rules are the exception, and for kids at St. Christina in the 1980s that is most people. 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.

So was the priest at St. Christina ever actually convicted?

He was not. The Archdiocese notified the Cook County State's Attorney in 1994, no charges came of it, and he died in March 2000, so a conviction is not coming. What exists instead is the Archdiocese's own finding in 1993, its listing of him as substantiated since 2006, the Attorney General's 2023 entry, and the civil complaints. Findings and allegations. Not a conviction, and nothing on this page says otherwise.

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.