CHICAGO (IL)
Catholic News Agency - EWTN [Denver CO]
November 25, 2025
By Daniel Payne
Multiple lawsuits allege that the Archdiocese of Chicago kept two priests in active ministry in spite of years of “mounting complaints” of child sexual abuse leveled against them.
The suits, filed by the Chicago-based law firm Gould, Grieco, & Hensley, allege that archdiocesan officials allowed Father Daniel Holihan and Father John Curran to continue ministry “even after Church officials were aware of their history abusing children.”
The suits were filed on behalf of students from two archdiocesan schools, Quigley Preparatory Seminary and St. Christina Catholic School. Holihan is alleged to have abused a male student at the now-closed preparatory seminary during the 1980s, while Curran allegedly abused two students at St. Christina around the same time.
The law firm claims the archdiocese had been warned about both Holihan and Curran as early as the 1960s. The alleged abuse victims said they were unaware of the archdiocese’s alleged prior knowledge until recently, when “previously concealed internal documents became accessible.”
The law firm alleged that the archdiocese “relied on a pattern of relocating clergy with known problems rather than addressing the underlying misconduct.”
“For decades, the archdiocese relied on secrecy and reassignment instead of transparency and accountability,” attorney Mike Grieco said in a press release. “That structure is what allowed priests like Holihan and Curran to stay in ministry for years, putting children in harm’s way.”
The Chicago Archdiocese did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the lawsuits.
As part of its investigations into clergy abuse, the Illinois attorney general’s office described Holihan as “one of the more notorious abusers in archdiocesan history.”
“The archdiocese knew what Holihan was doing to children years before it removed him from the pastorate — but during that time, it did nothing to stop him, taking him at his word that he could turn over a new leaf of his own accord,” the prosecutor’s office said.
The attorney general’s office also identified Curran as an alleged abuser. Holihan died in 2016, while Curran died in 2000.
Both Curran and Holihan are on the archdiocese’s list of priests with “substantiated” allegations of abuse leveled against them, and both are listed as having served at eight different locations in the archdiocese. Holihan was removed from public ministry in 2002 and laicized in 2010, while Curran was removed from public ministry in 1994.