Fr. Joseph Cullen O’Brien
Named publicly as accused on the diocese’s list 11/29/2018. Died 3/27/1978. Included in the 5/23/2023 IL Attorney General’s Report. The Diocese claims it first received an allegation of abuse by O’Brien in 2004. In 2015 a man reported sexual abuse by O’Brien at age 12 in 1968, saying O’Brien was charismatic and a “master manipulator.” Another man reported that O’Brien abused him as a teenager in the 1970s. The priest groomed him with expensive meals and trips to FL, where the abuse occurred. He later gave the boy $500. As of 5/2023, more than a dozen people had come forward with allegations that O’Brien sexually abused them young boys, from the 1940-1976.
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