JOLIET (IL)
Roman Catholic Diocese of Joliet

September 12, 2012

In late May of 2010 then Bishop J. Peter Sartain of the Diocese of Joliet informed the members of St. Edmund Parish in Watseka, Illinois and St. Joseph Mission in Crescent City, Illinois that their pastor, Father F. Lee Ryan was being placed on administrative leave because of a serious allegation of sexual abuse of a minor, alleged to have been perpetrated many years before.

The case was reviewed by the diocesan Review Committee and subsequently sent to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in Rome, as required by church law. That congregation determined that, under church law in force at the time of the alleged abuse, Father Ryan was not guilty of a grave delict (serious crime) and therefore could not be removed permanently from ministry.

Nevertheless, the local bishop always retains the right and obligation…