While it is good news that right wing fanatics in the Catholic Church didn't prevail in the election of the new Pope, I do want to point out that Robert Prevost, while head of the Augustinian order in the Midwest, and, later, worldwide, stonewalled calls for the release of the names of Augustinian clergy credibly accused of the sexual abuse of children. In fact, he was an active collaborator in shielding these priests, and frequently moved accused priests from post to post putting other young people at risk.
Reporter Robert Herguth of the Chicago Sun-Times who has been reporting on clergy abuse issues in the Chicago archdiocese for decades published a story on May 1, 2025 (prior to the Conclave) on the tragic death of a 43-year-old man who had been raped by an Augustinian priest, Rev. Richard McGrath, while the man, Robert Krankvich, was in high school in the 1990s. Prevost was head of the order in the Midwest at the time.
Accuser who settled $2 million child sex abuse lawsuit against the Catholic church dies at 43
Robert Krankvich sued the church in 2018, alleging the Rev. Richard McGrath raped him while he was a high school student in the 1990s. Krankvich’s family says that trauma led to addiction issues that fueled health problems.
Herguth’s story details Krankvich’s lifetime of struggles after the rape, and the $2 million settlement that did little to quiet his demons. Krankvich died last week. The story also highlights the refusal of Prevost and the Augustinians to open their files on abusive priests.
Church leaders these days sometimes portray the church’s decades-long sex abuse scandal as old news. But Krankvich’s allegations gave evidence of more contemporary offenders, as McGrath remained at Providence until being sidelined in 2017 amid a child pornography investigation.
Krankvich’s case and the pornography allegations — in which a student reported seeing the image of a nude boy on McGrath’s phone — also highlighted the secretive nature of the Augustinians.
For years, they were one of the more prominent Catholic orders to refuse to release a public list of their sex offenders — even as other church officials and reformers demanded transparency from Catholic groups in the name of healing and atonement.
The order’s handling of sex abuse complaints has been under renewed scrutiny because an Augustinian from Chicago, Cardinal Robert Prevost, is helping choose the next pope and has been mentioned as a longshot successor to Pope Francis. Prevost once ran the Chicago-based province that includes Providence and St. Rita High School on the South Side, and was the order’s international leader for years.
In addition, Herguth and the Sun-Times published an article yesterday after Prevost was announced as Pope with details on Prevost's efforts to shield priests credibly accused of such abuse from having their names made public.
Pope Leo XIV's religious order still mired in secrecy over child sex abuse
The new pope, Chicago area native Robert Prevost, has faced criticism for not doing more to encourage his religious order, the Augustinians, to embrace transparency over the decades-long sex abuse crisis.
The article notes Prevost’s stonewalling of repeated attempts to get the Augustinians to release a list of known sexual predators among their ranks. As the story notes:
The Midwest Augustinians — based on the Far Southwest Side, and led by Prevost more than two decades ago — only last year created a publicly available list of its credibly accused offenders.
That came six years after the religious order the late Pope Francis had been part of, the Jesuits, released a comprehensive list of its offenders in the Chicago region and beyond — a log now considered the gold standard in church transparency.
…
But he (Prevost) has faced more direct criticism based on the findings of a 2021 Chicago Sun-Times story that the Augustinians had, while he was in charge of the Augustinians in Chicago in 2000, allowed an accused pedophile priest to live at a South Side monastery without telling a nearby Catholic elementary school the man was there.
Indeed, church records assert there was no school nearby when there was.
That information came to light after the Sun-Times discovered McGrath had also been moved to the monastery in 2017 or 2018 after some of the accusations against him emerged — and by that time a preschool was across the alley, and also hadn’t been notified by the order.
And how did Prevost respond to questions from Herguth and the Sun-Times?
The Sun-Times emailed Prevost, who responded:
“I’m glad you’re enjoying good weather in Chicago!”
“I will be traveling internationally over the coming week. It may not be easy to make phone contact. Feel free to send questions you might have, and if I can I will be glad to answer. I have been away from the Chicago area for some time, and am not sure how much information about the Midwest Province of the Augustinians I would be able to offer you — outside of what you have already been able to find. But, again, feel free to send your questions and I’ll see what I can do.”
“Take care.”
Among the follow-up questions asked via email was whether he had “any idea if/when the Chicago province is going to put out a public list of the credibly accused and, if so, when and, if not, why not? Any idea why it’s taken so long after even our cardinal called for greater transparency in 2018?”
Prevost never responded again.
He stonewalled.
I’m all for lauding the election of a liberal Pope, but, make no mistake, Robert Prevost/Leo XIV was complicit in protecting and shielding vile child sexual predators who should have been turned over to authorities and faced justice. And more than one person’s life was destroyed by Prevost’s complicity.
UPDATE:
I realize it is not a popular take to point out that this new Pope is a player in the long, sordid, disgusting history of the Catholic Church and clergy sexual abuse, but I have been fighting this battle personally for decades. Here is a story I wrote in 2018 about my experience:
The Class of `74: Where are they now?
How four priests from a single ordination class in the Chicago Archdiocese sexually assaulted and traumatized dozens of young parishioners — and faced zero legal consequences.
This is why I am not ready, willing or able to “celebrate” the new Pope despite the fact that he is considered a liberal.
