Fr. Phillip J. Dedera

Ordained: 1972
Status: Settled

Removed from hospital chaplain ministry 2002 after a credible allegation that he abused a teenager in 1974. Sued in 2006 by a person alleging abuse over 100 times at St. Pius X parish in Lombard 1975-1976. Claim settled. Name on the Joliet diocese’s list in 2006. Diocese agreed to release of personnel files in 3/2013 as part of settlement in Rudofski v Joliet & Bennett. Files released 4/30/2014. Named in a 2015 suit as having ignored an 11-year-old boy’s screams while another priest, Henry Slade, assaulted him after the boy refused a sex act. Plaintiff said Dedera then offered him marijuana to “help him forget it.” Permanently removed from ministry, per the diocese’s list updated 12/6/2018. Included in the 5/23/2023 IL Attorney General’s Report, which notes 7 “reported survivors.”

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