Fr. Robert Louis Kealy

Ordained: 1972
Status: Accused

Diocese: Archdiocese of Chicago IL

Chancellor. Lawyer, handled sex abuse cases in the Archdiocese. Member of the Archdiocesan Review Board. Quietly left Chancellor position in 1992 after a young adult reported that Kealy had made a pass at him at a party.  Appointed pastor of Immaculate Conception in Highland Park. Report in 6/2001 of inappropriate sexual conduct with a 15- or 16-year-old boy in the 1970s at St. Germaine in Oak Lawn. Denied abuse, admitted to smoking marijuana and drinking with boys in the 1970s. No action by Review Board until complainant came forward again in 2002, threatening to go public. Kealy admitted to the abuse and to abusing two other children. Resigned from parish in 3/2002. Faculties removed “for at least a year” in 7/2005. Resigned from priesthood in 4/2006. As of 2014 was still a priest, working as a lawyer. Laicized in 12/2018. Included in the 5/23/2023 IL Attorney General’s Report, which notes additional allegations of abuse received after 2006. 


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