What happened to you at St. Leonard was not okay, and it was not only you.

St. Leonard on Clarence Avenue, in south Berwyn. The church, the rectory, the school on the corner of 34th, the altar servers. If you were a kid there between the early 1970s and the late 1980s and something happened that you have never quite put down, then yes. This is about you. The Illinois Attorney General's report on Catholic clergy abuse lists five priests assigned to St. Leonard as substantiated abusers. Three of them were assistant or associate pastors there, one after another, from 1972 to 1985. That is not our count. It is the State's.

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Looking for the Archdiocese page? Archdiocese of Chicago survivors.

This applies to you no matter what

You served at the altar. The altar boys at St. Leonard were Father Romano's to run, the investigators the Archdiocese hired confirmed as much in 2008, and the man whose 2012 report led to the Miller finding had been serving Mass there at 13, maybe 14.
You never said a word to anyone, not once. The state's report lists 24 people who eventually spoke up about Father Ruge and 17 about Father Romano. Most of them waited twenty or thirty years.
You told somebody and nothing happened. A mother from St. Leonard called the Archdiocese about Ruge on November 11, 1986. He was kept in a parish, under what the file calls monitoring, for five more years.
It has been forty years. Illinois rewrote its deadline law in 2014, and for St. Leonard kids the answer is not automatic, but the Archdiocese has settled claims about these same priests as recently as this month. Details below.
You've got a record now, or a diagnosis, or a life you don't want to explain to a stranger. None of that changes what the parish owed you when you were twelve.
You're a sister, a wife, a grown son asking for someone who won't pick up the phone himself. Reach out anyway. More people do than you'd think.

St. Leonard and its priests: what the public record says, and when

None of what's below is ours. It comes from the Illinois Attorney General, from the Archdiocese of Chicago's own personnel files, released in 2014, from its published list of substantiated clergy, and from the reporters who covered the settlements, and every line links to its source. We don't add to it. None of these five men was ever charged with a crime, and we do not say otherwise. A review board finding is called that; a settled claim is called settled, because a settlement is not an admission.

June 7, 1974

Father Russell Romano was a year out of the seminary when he was appointed to St. Leonard, where his own assignment form has him from 1974 to 1979. Three men came forward in August 2007 about those years, 1975 to 1981: alcohol, a drive-in, a rectory bed. The Archdiocese brought in an investigations firm. It confirmed one thing straight off, that Romano ran the altar boys at St. Leonard. Romano had already resigned from the priesthood, in 1991 (he'd be laicized in 2009 and die in 2020), but the review board went ahead anyway, and in June 2008 found there was reasonable cause to suspect the misconduct occurred. All three of them. Archdiocese of Chicago file on Rev. Russell Romano, released January 2014.

November 11, 1986

A St. Leonard's mother in Berwyn picked up the phone and called the Archdiocese about her son, 16, who said Father Kenneth Ruge had abused him once, in October 1985. "Indicates there may be more," the Vicar for Priests wrote. Ruge had been St. Leonard's associate pastor from 1979 to 1985 and was by then at Divine Savior in Norridge. Six days later he was put under a mandate not to be with minors, no cottage trips, regular monitoring, and left in his parish. In June 1991 the personnel board considered him for pastor. He was removed that November 4. A 1994 summary in the same file: "he admits to more than one child sexual abuse victims." Ruge died in 2002. Archdiocese of Chicago file on Rev. Kenneth Ruge, released January 2014.

October 3, 2003

Slightly more than $8 million, that is what the Archdiocese of Chicago agreed to pay 15 adults over abuse by 11 priests, 1954 through 1991, and Kenneth Ruge's name was among the eleven. The individual amounts ran anywhere from $200,000 up to $1.7 million; which one was his, the article doesn't say. These were settlements. Not judgments. Chicago Tribune, via BishopAccountability.org.

July 21, 2009

Six more claims against the Archdiocese were settled in mediation, involving four priests. Two of the four were Kenneth Ruge and Russell Romano; the claimants' lawyers noted that Romano had never before been named in the press as an accused abuser. The amounts were not announced. Earth Times, via BishopAccountability.org.

September 25, 2012

Father Gary Miller resigned as pastor of St. Bernadette in Evergreen Park. The Archdiocese had received an allegation at the end of June that he sexually abused a minor while assigned to St. Leonard in the 1970s. Its Independent Review Board found "there is reasonable cause to suspect that sexual abuse of a minor had occurred" and recommended he be withdrawn; the Archdiocese reported it to DCFS and the Cook County State's Attorney. Miller died in January 2021. CBS Chicago.

May 23, 2023

The Illinois Attorney General published the state's report on Catholic clergy child sex abuse. Its entry for Kenneth Charles Ruge lists St. Leonard, Berwyn among his assignments, 24 reported survivors, reported abuse in Berwyn in 1978 to 1985 and 1983 to 1987, a first report to the Archdiocese in 1986, "limited ministry with restrictions and monitoring" that year, and removal in 1991. The report carries entries of the same kind for Romano, Miller, Tanghal and Theisen. Illinois Attorney General, Ruge entry.

February 10, 2025

The Archdiocese of Chicago's current list of clergy with substantiated allegations of sexual abuse of a minor, in its own words "as defined by the policies of the Archdiocese," names all five: Ruge, Romano, Miller, Tanghal and Theisen. Each entry lists St. Leonard (Berwyn) among the man's assignments. All five are deceased. Archdiocese of Chicago, substantiated allegations list.

September 10, 2026

The Sun-Times reported that the Archdiocese had recently settled nine abuse claims against eight priests for $5.4 million. One of the eight was Russell Romano, for a claim from his years at Quigley Preparatory Seminary South after he left Berwyn. "Nobody's paying that kind of money for something that didn't happen," the claimants' lawyer said. A settlement, again, not a finding. Chicago Sun-Times.

We checked this on September 11, 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 can be held responsible in a St. Leonard lawsuit

Not the priests. All five are dead, and none of them ever had the money anyway. The claims about these priests that have actually paid out were brought against the Archdiocese of Chicago, which owns the parish, assigns its priests and keeps the files. The theory is the one Illinois courts have heard for thirty years. An institution that puts a man in a rectory next to a grade school, and hands him the altar servers, owes those children ordinary care. When it is told he is hurting kids and leaves him in a parish, that is negligent retention. When it knows and chooses, Illinois lets a jury go further than ordinary damages.

What makes St. Leonard unusual is how much of the knowing is in the Archdiocese's own hand. The November 1986 call about Ruge, the mandate six days later, the 1991 pastor nomination, the 1994 line about admitting to more than one victim: those are pages from a file the Archdiocese released to victims' lawyers in January 2014. Romano's file has the 1985 and 1986 reports and the review board's 2008 findings on the Berwyn years. Miller's has the 2012 finding. Then the Attorney General put all five names, with St. Leonard beside each, in a public state report. A St. Leonard complaint does not have to guess at what the Archdiocese knew.

One honest caveat. Because these priests are dead and the years are old, a lawyer will want to go through your specifics carefully before anything is filed, including whether one of the earlier settlements already covered you. That is why the first conversation is with a person, not a form.

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

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 real. Here is the catch, and it is why we ask your birth year. The 2014 law did not reach backward; a claim that had already expired under the old rules stayed expired, and Illinois courts have said so more than once. Born in 1983 or later, your claim was alive when the law changed and you can file on age alone. Most St. Leonard kids from these years were born before that.

So for most people on this page the question is the older rule, and it is not a dead end. Before 2014 Illinois gave you twenty years from the day you understood both that you had been abused and that the abuse caused the harm you carry, not twenty years from the abuse itself. And it stops the clock where an institution hid what it knew. The Archdiocese was told about Ruge in 1986 and about Romano in 1985, and kept both men in ministry, under restrictions, until 1991. A lawyer will want to know when you first connected the two, and what, if anything, St. Leonard or the Archdiocese ever said to you.

There is also a path that never goes near a courtroom. The Archdiocese has settled claims about these same priests, from these same years, in 2003, in 2009 and again this September, through its own claims process. In plain words: for a St. Leonard kid born before 1983 there is very likely still a way, but it turns on facts only you know, and it takes a conversation, not a guess from a web page.

Your situation still qualifies even if

You told a nun, a teacher, your mother. Or you told nobody. Both are already in the file.
It wasn't one of these five. A different priest, a teacher, a coach; the case is against the institution either way.
You loved that parish, or the school, or him, for a while. Plenty of people did. It cancels nothing.
Your family still goes to Mass there. The church on Clarence is still open, and this has nothing to do with the people in the pews.
You live in Indiana now, or Wisconsin, or Cicero. Same page, same call.

Facilities covered

St. Leonard church and rectory at 3318 S. Clarence Avenue, Berwyn · St. Leonard School at 34th and Clarence, still open · the altar servers, the parish youth programs, the cottage and camping trips a priest took kids on. These days the parish is a campus of Blessed Miguel Pro Catholic Parish, having been united with St. Pius X over in Stickney, but Mass is still said at St. Leonard. The five priests and which years each was there: that's in the question further down about who was named. Maybe it was one of their other assignments instead, Divine Infant in Westchester, say, or Divine Savior in Norridge, St. Barbara in Brookfield, Quigley South; the questions still work. Answer them and say where on the call.

Questions people are asking

Can I sue St. Leonard church in Berwyn?

In practice you bring the claim against the Archdiocese of Chicago, which owns St. Leonard, assigned the priests and got the reports about them. Claims about St. Leonard's priests have been settled with the Archdiocese since 2003; settled, not tried. Whether a lawyer will take yours depends on what happened and when, which is what the questions above sort out.

Were the St. Leonard priests convicted?

No. None of the five was charged with a crime. What exists is a state finding and a church finding: the Illinois Attorney General's 2023 report lists each of them as a substantiated abuser with St. Leonard among his assignments, and the Archdiocese of Chicago's own list does the same. All five are dead, which matters less than you'd think, because a civil claim doesn't run against the man. It runs against the institution, and for that no conviction is needed.

Isn't there a statute of limitations on this in Illinois?

Not since January 1, 2014, for any claim that was still alive that day. For most St. Leonard kids, born before 1983, the claim runs on the older discovery rule and on what the Archdiocese concealed, which is why we ask your birth year and whether you ever told anyone. And there's the other route: the Archdiocese has settled claims about these priests without a courtroom, the latest in September 2026.

Which priests at St. Leonard were named?

Five, on both the Attorney General's list and the Archdiocese's: Kenneth Ruge, associate pastor 1979 to 1985, 24 reported survivors; Russell Romano, 1974 to 1979, 17; Gary Miller, 1972 to 1978, 2; and two more, Richard Theisen (1966 to 1972) and, much later, Alberto Tanghal (1995 to 1996), assigned there but whose reported abuse the state places elsewhere. A different priest? Say so on the call. The claim is against the Archdiocese either way.

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.