ILLINOIS
Daily Herald

James Steele

By Charles Keeshan

When a 13-year-old boy went to his associate pastor at St. Joseph the Worker Church in Wheeling 30 years ago, confused over the sexual abuse he said he was suffering at the hands of the parish school’s principal, James Steel didn’t offer the young parishioner comfort.

Instead, according to the findings of a 2006 report made for the Archdiocese of Chicago, there is credible evidence Steel sexually assaulted the teen.

The investigation looked into claims made against Steel, a now former priest who served the Wheeling parish from 1979 to 1984.

“In the (investigator’s) opinion there is reason to believe the accused engaged in inappropriate sexual abuse of (the victim),” the private investigations firm Jack Burke & Associates states in the report. “The detail of (the victim’s) statement, the corroboration of time and place by former school principal Donald Ryniecki…