Fr. David Francis Braun

Ordained: 1954
Status: Accused

Died: 12/2/1997
Diocese: Archdiocese of Chicago IL

Included in archdiocesan report 3/20/2006. Per documents released 11/2014, in 1963 Braun “attempted immorality ” with 14-year-old male hitchhiker. Boy’s father and police agreed not to press charges if church handled it. Admitted to sex with young boys as early as 1956. Would pick boys up in car after school and abuse, including sodomy, in a car or in Forest Preserves. Placed on leave, sent to treatment, reinstated as assistant at a Lincoln Park parish. Moved among a number of Chicago parishes, then made pastor in Wilmette. Alcoholic, began work with others in alcohol treatment at Lakeshore Hospital in the 1970s. Pastor in Round Lake, Palatine, North Riverside. Retired in 1992, lived in IL and FL. Allegation in 1992 of abuse in 1960 of a boy, age 13. In 1994 a woman reported abuse by Braun at age 4 in the mid-1960s. Bernardin ordered restrictions. In 1995, a man reported abuse in the mid-1960s, at age 10. Braun died in 12/1997. By 2008 two more men had come forward, one alleging abuse in 1954 at age 12, the other in the early 1980s, at age 22. Included in the 5/23/2023 IL Attorney General’s Report.


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