CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Sun-Times
BY FRANCINE KNOWLES Religion Reporter January 21, 2014
On Oct. 23, 1967, then Archbishop of Chicago Cardinal John Cody inquired in a brief memo to a Monsignor Byrne: “What are you planning to do about this Father Kelly?”
Nowhere near enough was done, contends 62-year-old Joseph Iocono, who said he was sexually abused in his preteens by the late Archdiocese of Chicago priest Thomas F. Kelly.
According to documents from the archdiocese, more than a dozen allegations of sexual abuse against minors were made to the church against Kelly. The abuse was alleged to have occurred while he served at three different parishes between 1967 and 1973, including St. John Vianney, St. Catherine of Genoa and St. Therese of the Infant Jesus (Little Flower).
The documents show Kelly was accused of plying minors with alcohol, fondling them, performing oral sex on them and showing them pornography.
“I think that it’s important to see how the church mishandled these situations,” said Iocono, who welcomes the release of the documents and says he was abused in the rectory at St. John Vianney in Northlake. “The priest that abused me was moved … to different parishes and he abused at other parishes.”
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