McHenry County References in Attorney General’s Report on Catholic Clergy Sex Abuse – Part 3

Those with connections to Crystal Lake continued:

JOHN C. HOLDREN

The report has this to say of Holdren:

The new 1995 policies were put to the test the following year when four survivors stepped forward to report child sex abuse allegations against two different priests. In May 1996, a survivor reported Father John Holdren had sexually abused him as a

child in the mid-1970s at Saint Thomas in Crystal Lake. And in December 1996, three survivors reported Father Harlan Clapsaddle had sexually abused them as children in the late 1970s after meeting them at Saint James in Rockford. In fact, the diocese had been on notice about both priests years before these
allegations came in. Holdren had been removed from active ministry in August 1994 after he was severely and perhaps inexplicably beaten during an alleged home invasion. At that time, the diocese was aware Holdren had problems with alcohol and was known to “pick up” young boys. As for Clapsaddle, the survivors’ mother had reported the abuse to the diocese back in 1993. The diocese confronted Clapsaddle, who denied the allegations and cast aspersions on the mother’s motive. The diocese concluded the allegations were not credible, in part because this was the first time anyone had accused Clapsaddle of abuse.

The diocese’s file does not reveal whether it investigated the survivor’s allegations against Holdren, who was “impeded from the exercise of sacred orders” and never returned to active ministry.

What is clear, however, is the diocese failed to disclose the allegations against Holdren, not only to law enforcement officials, but also to the public as a whole (or at least to the parishes in the west Chicago suburbs where Holdren had served). The diocese did offer to pay for the survivor’s counseling. It took a similar course with the three survivors of Clapsaddle’s abuse. A senior diocesan official determined their allegations were credible, and Clapsaddle was quickly removed from active ministry; the diocese also offered to pay for counseling for the survivors and their mother. But again it failed to disclose the allegations to the public, law enforcement officials, or the parishes across northern Illinois where Clapsaddle had served. Worse, although the diocese concluded Clapsaddle “does present a risk to other minors,” it allowed him to resume priestly ministry at a nursing home in Rockford.

Ordained: 1971
Diocesan: Rockford, IL
Illinois Assignments
• Saint John the Baptist, Johnsburg, IL
• Saint Peter, Geneva, IL
• Saint Thomas the Apostle, Crystal
Lake, IL
• Saint Rita of Cascia, Aurora, IL
Reported Survivors: 3
Date/Location of Reported Abuse
• 1972: Kane County, IL
• 1972-1976: Kane County, IL
• 1972-1976: McHenry County, IL

Diocese claim of first report: 1996
Placed on Catholic Church Public Lists
• 11/14/18: Diocese of Rockford, IL
Actions/Status
• 1994: Removed from ministry
• 2018: Died


Comments

McHenry County References in Attorney General’s Report on Catholic Clergy Sex Abuse – Part 3 — 17 Comments

  1. When are we listing other religions?

    The public school teachers?

    The Boy Scouts?

    Camp Counselors?

    DCFS abuse?

    Doctors and other professions?

    (wasn’t AJ’s abuser a lawyer?).

    Why the pre-occupation with the Catholic Church? Hmmmm. Methinks thou hast an agenda.

  2. Ah…so the defense you’ve taken Cal is, “This is the information I’ve been given; so I report the information given to me.”
    Perhaps, the information “given” to you is biased as well? Is that a possibility? Hmmmmm.

    I just quickly looked up abuse convictions of the Boy Scouts in Illinois. Pages and pages of abusers all over Illinois including McHenry County. Robert Schindler, Gary Shadden, and many at Camp Lakota in Woodstock in the more recent past – and I’m not mentioning the ones from Kane County, Elgin, Lake County, and in Fox Lake particularly.

    I guess the Attorney General doesn’t consider sending you those. I wonder why?

  3. But you keep on targeting Drag Queen entertainers, that will straighten everything out.

  4. “Why the pre-occupation with the Catholic Church?” The Catholic Church is the greatest fraud ever foisted on society.

  5. Why the preoccupation with trans folks? Why the preoccupation with drag performers?

  6. Seems most identify with Jesus when it comes to their own interests, but decide a wrathful Jehovah is for everyone else.

  7. The screeching monkeys attacking Cal from both sides are really something.

    Retard 1 says you can’t talk about the Catholic church because schools do bad stuff too.

    Retard 2 says you can’t criticize drag shows for children because of chomos in the church.

    What a bunch of intellectual juggernauts. lol

  8. Sad when people don’t know historical fact.

    Jesus Christ taught what is known now as Christianity.

    The Catholic church was founded by Constantine the Great, a wise political move.

    “Constantine’s decision to cease the persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire was a turning point for early Christianity, sometimes referred to as the Triumph of the Church, the Peace of the Church or the Constantinian shift.

    “In 313, Constantine and Licinius issued the Edict of Milan decriminalizing Christian worship.

    “The emperor became a great patron of the Church and set a precedent for the position of the Christian emperor within the Church and raised the notions of orthodoxy, Christendom, ecumenical councils, and the state church of the Roman Empire declared by edict in 380.”

  9. Matthew 16- “Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. Then Jesus said, Blessed art thou Simon Bar-Jona, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to thee, but my Father in heaven. And I say to thee thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: whatever thou shall bind on Earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever thou shalt loose on Earth shall be loosed in heaven.”

    BOOM, this is the founding of the Catholic (universal) Church by our Lord.

    Direct transference of responsibility and authority because Jesus knew the events to come.

    There was no mention of waiting for Constantine to declare, these Christians had a long succession of martyrs, leaders of the Church after Peter, meeting in catacombs, going out into the world to proclaim the words of Christ.

    Constantine’s mother was St. Helena, who found the true cross, she prayed for his conversion.

  10. Not Christianity, the Catholic Church, while similar is not exactly the same.

    Catholic Church was defined by the Nicia Creed of 381, the Schism of 1054, and multiple of manmade rules, that defines the present organization that is mentioned here.

    “In one holy catholic and apostolic Church; we acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins; we look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.”

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