Chicago-based Servites hiding predators
June 22, 2023
Fr. Dennis Kriz, OSM
Servite Provincial Center
3121 West Jackson Blvd.
Chicago, IL 60612-2729
Dear Fr. Kriz:
We are with a support group called SNAP (the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests). Our mission is to protect the vulnerable, heal the wounded and expose the truth. We would like you to help us do this by being more forthcoming about predators who are or were in your religious order.
As you know, Attorney General Kwame Raoul’s recent five-year investigation into clergy sex crimes and cover ups was extensive and well done. It’s becoming increasingly clear, however, that Illinois Catholic officials – despite promises to be ‘transparent’ - kept many secrets from AG staffers.
As a result, the names of dozens of child molesting priests, nuns, seminarians, brothers, monks and bishops who are or have been in Illinois are still hidden.
We are not professional investigators nor experienced internet sleuths. We can’t subpoena records or compel testimony. We have access to no sophisticated databases. Still, we’ve been able to find dozens of publicly accused abusive Catholic staffers who are not in Raoul’s report, are not on church ‘credibly accused’ lists, or are not on any lists.
A dozen such clerics now live in Illinois, most with little or no supervision or monitoring and may still pose a threat to children.
One in particular worries us: Fr. John M. Huels, who once headed your religious order. At least two men have said he abused them as youngsters, including at least one who lives in Chicago now. Fr. Huels admitted to molesting at least one of them.
Yet just a few short years ago, in 2018, sixteen years after he was accused, Fr. Huels was still a priest, a professor and a dean at a Catholic college.
And the last known address we’ve been able to find on him was in Chicago. Wherever he is now, we are fairly certain – and we strongly feel – that he is among unsuspecting neighbors and perhaps co-workers, who have not been told of his crimes.
That means that adults very likely still trust him and children very likely are still vulnerable around him.
That is on you. Your first duty, as a religious figure, is to safeguard the innocent and vulnerable. By not insisting that Fr. Huels live in a remote, secure, independently-run treatment center, you are knowingly putting other children at risk of devastating abuse.
And by not actively publicizing his admitted crimes, you are also deliberately putting other children at risk of devastating abuse.
This is especially inexcusable given that Fr. Huels’ name does not appear in AG Kwame Raoul’s 700 page report on Catholic child sex crimes and cover ups in Illinois.
And because Fr. Huels’ name also does not appear on Chicago Cardinal Blasé Cupich’s ‘credibly accused list.
And because Fr. Huels is well-educated and well-spoken. He likely has powerful church allies, having run a religious order. He has succeeded at staying on the job and getting new jobs even after having been publicly accused of abuse. For these reasons and others, we in SNAP consider him particularly dangerous.
But as you know, Fr. Huels is not the only child molesting Servite. Other proven, admitted and credibly accused abusive Servites include Br. Gregory Atherton, Fr. Donald M. Duplessis, Fr. Kevin M. Fitzpatrick, Fr. Bruce J. Klikunas, Fr. Raymond M. LaBate, Fr. Andrew M. Ronan, Fr. Mark Santo, Br. Joe Sharkey and Fr. Franco Tentori, Fr. Philip Scherer and Fr. Andrew Ronan. (The latter two worked in the Chicago area.)
As you know, the Bible tells us that ‘the truth shall set you free.’ It says nothing about ‘partial truth’ or ‘grudging truth’ or ‘belated truth’ or ‘truth that only surfaces in response to legal or public relations pressure.’
The full truth is what sets us free. The full truth helps protect kids. The full truth helps heal victims. The full truth helps restore the faith of the faithful. And the full truth about abuse is what police, prosecutors, parents and parishioners need and deserve.
So we ask you humbly but insistently: Will you please ‘come clean’ on abuse? For the sake of the vulnerable and the wounded, will you please reveal, and post permanently and prominently on your website, the names, photos, work histories, and ‘last known whereabouts’ of every current or former Servite, living or deceased?
David G. Clohessy, Missouri volunteer SNAP director
(former SNAP national director)
314-566-9790 (cell)
@davidgclohessy