JOLIET (IL)
Chicago Sun-Times [Chicago IL]
October 26, 2025
By Robert Herguth
[Photo above: The Rev. Nestor Sanchez (left) and Bishop Ron Hicks, leader of the Diocese of Joliet. | Diocese of Joliet]
And not just by the priest. Also by the Diocese of Joliet led by Bishop Ron Hicks, whose office essentially branded the accuser “a liar” despite evidence an incident occurred, according to a new lawsuit.
A suburban woman got to know the Rev. Nestor Sanchez when she was employed by a Chicago-area Catholic parish he helped oversee and that she was a member of.
They became friendly, according to the woman, who says he became her “spiritual adviser” and would hear her confessions.
But the woman, who is married and a mother, says one day last year Sanchez made aggressive and unwanted sexual advances that she believes amounted to assault, according to a lawsuit she has filed in Will County Circuit Court.
It’s a case that involves a little-discussed issue afflicting the Catholic church and other faith groups: accusations of sexual misconduct by clergy upon another adult.
The woman says she was stunned at how her accusations were handled by the Diocese of Joliet — the arm of the Catholic church for DuPage, Kendall and Will counties led by Bishop Ron Hicks.
There’s no evidence church officials sidelined Sanchez as a result of the accusations until recently, more than a year after learning of them. This was after the woman filed suit, naming Sanchez and Hicks’ office as defendants.
Until then, the woman says Hicks’ office looked into her accusations but essentially branded her “a liar” even while concluding there likely was sexual contact but portraying it as “mutual, inappropriate, consensual behavior.”
The woman says there was nothing mutual about it. She says she had to fend off Sanchez and reported this to the police the next day.
According to her lawsuit, Sanchez, without the woman’s consent, “hugged plaintiff, spanked her buttocks, touched her left thigh, ran his hand up her dress, put his finger in her underwear, pulled her dress down, exposed her bra, kissed her shoulder and forcibly put plaintiff’s hand on his penis over his clothing.”
The police say, “It was determined that there was not enough evidence to pursue criminal charges.”
If a cleric knows the other adult in the context of the church, through a spiritual lens, any sexual contact could be considered abusive in church and civil domains because of the power dynamics, experts say.
Some arms of the Catholic church in the United States consider sexual misconduct against “vulnerable” adults to be so serious they include the names of priests who have been credibly accused of it on their online public lists that, for the most part, name clergy members found to have sexually abused children over the course of the church’s decades-long child sex abuse crisis.
And Catholic priests are supposed to be celibate.
“I feel betrayed,” says the woman, who asked that she not be identified.
She says her treatment by Hicks’ office solidified her decision to sue. She says it’s not because of money but to help ensure that nothing like this happens again with Sanchez and also to push back against the contention she was somehow to blame.
“When I reported this, the first thing I thought of was, I don’t want this to happen to another woman,” she says.
In response to the lawsuit, filed Oct. 14, Hicks’ office put out a written statement saying: “The Diocese of Joliet has been made aware of a lawsuit involving allegations of sexual misconduct by a member of our clergy with an adult woman. As a matter of policy, we do not comment on the specifics of active litigation. However, we wish to reaffirm our unwavering commitment to the safety and well-being of our parishioners and employees.
“We take seriously the responsibility to ensure that all priests entrusted with ministry in our parishes are suitable for service and uphold the highest standards of conduct.
“Because the lawsuit filed affects the public nature of Fr. Nestor Sanchez’s ministry and out of an abundance of caution, the diocese has decided to suspend his ministry while the lawsuit is pending.”
The woman says she was “very frustrated by reading their response.”
“Where was that ‘abundance of caution’ a year ago?” she says.
Church officials won’t comment.
Sanchez couldn’t be reached. He’s had assignments at Holy Family Catholic Parish in Shorewood, Saints Peter and Paul Catholic parish in Naperville and more recently at churches elsewhere in Illinois.
According to biographical information posted online, Sanchez began his “priestly vocation in a religious missionary community in Mexico” before being “invited to the Diocese of Joliet” and studying at the Pontifical College Josephinum in Columbus, Ohio, an institution once led by Cardinal Blase Cupich.
Now head of the Archdiocese of Chicago that serves as the arm of the Catholic church for Cook and Lake counties, Cupich sidelined another priest in recent days over accusations of sexual misconduct with men training for the priesthood.
Early in the current wave of the church’s child sex abuse crisis that erupted in 2018, Cupich told the Chicago Sun-Times his office’s handling of misconduct accusations involving priests and adults was a model for church institutions. Asked to provide numbers of incidents and other details, he said his aides would provide that information but never did.
In recent days, the Catholic church’s Diocese of Buffalo suspended a New York priest from active ministry “due to allegations of sexual harassment of adults, as well as inappropriate workplace and ministerial conduct.”
Other faith groups haven’t been immune from sexual misconduct accusations involving adults and clergy.
A study more than 15 years ago reported that “one in 33 women in congregations has been the object of a sexual advance by a religious leader.”
A report by Baylor University researcher Lucy Huh, published earlier this year in the Critical Social Policy journal, says: “The inherently abusive nature of sexual contact between clergy and adult congregants stems from a complex web of power relations that distinguishes these cases from other forms of sexual exploitation.
“While parallels exist with doctor-patient or therapist-client relationships, clergy-congregant dynamics carry additional layers of complexity due to the intersection of spiritual authority, gender and institutional power.”
The Rev. Luis Andrade, who once served congregations in Elgin and Burr Ridge, was expelled from the Episcopal church as a priest in 2019 after an internal investigation found accusations of sexual misconduct three women leveled against him were credible.
Bill Hybels, founder of the evangelical megachurch Willow Creek Community Church, based in South Barrington, resigned in 2018 amid accusations of “sexually inappropriate words and actions.”
At an Islamic school and mosque in Elgin, Muslim scholar Mohammad Saleem was convicted in 2016 of sexually abusing a minor and a woman who worked there.