The Archdiocese of Chicago has settled out of court with nine people who accused eight Chicago-area priests of sexually abusing them decades ago, with the payouts totaling $5.4 million. The settlements were reached in the last two weeks, according to the victims' attorneys, and cover allegations stretching from the early 1970s into the late 1990s, when the victims were between 6 and 14 years old.
The deals bring the archdiocese's cumulative payout to survivors past $400 million, according to the Chicago Sun-Times, which reported the settlements. The law firms Jeff Anderson & Associates and Pearlman and Anderson represented the nine claimants and have together secured more than $130 million in settlements from the archdiocese, per the same report.
Attorney Marc Pearlman said the size of the payouts speaks for itself. “Nobody's paying that kind of money for something that didn't happen,” Pearlman said, adding that the settlements “validate that the abuse happened.” Attorney Melissa Anderson said the outcomes represent “some measure of justice” for her clients, according to the Sun-Times report.
The Eight Priests Named in the Claims
The priests accused in the nine claims include James Sayers, tied to abuse allegations at St. Joseph Parish and St. John Neumann Parish in Homewood; David Braun, accused at the St. Francis Xavier campus of Saints JFX School in Wilmette; and Norbert Mayday, accused at Our Lady of the Ridge in Chicago Ridge. The Sun-Times report notes multiple settlements involved allegations against Mayday specifically.
Also named were Russell Romano, accused at Quigley Preparatory Seminary South High School in Chicago; Michael Cepon, accused at St. Mary of the Assumption Church in Chicago; Clement Carroll, accused at Our Lady of Peace School in Chicago; William O'Connor, accused at St. Paul Catholic Church in Chicago Heights; and William Devereux, accused at St. Martha of Bethany Church in Morton Grove. According to the article, Carroll, Cepon, O'Connor and Sayers are not listed on the Archdiocese of Chicago's public list of credibly accused clergy members.
Sayers served as a priest in the archdiocese for more than 56 years before his death in December 2014 at age 82, according to the Chicago Sun-Times' obituary coverage, which notes he also served at Visitation Church. Mayday, meanwhile, was convicted of child sex abuse in 1994 and incarcerated in Wisconsin, and he was previously part of a $12.6 million settlement the archdiocese reached in 2008, as reported by Catholic News Agency. Cardinal Francis George had referred Mayday's canonical status directly to the Vatican while he was imprisoned, that outlet reported.
A Statute of Limitations With No Deadline
These claims are only possible because Illinois has completely eliminated the civil statute of limitations for childhood sexual abuse lawsuits, according to the law firm Taxman, Pollock & Bekkerman, LLC. Under Illinois Code Section 13-202.2, survivors can now sue no matter how many decades have passed since the abuse; the prior law had restricted claims to 20 years after the person reached age 18, a disability was removed or the person discovered that an injury was caused by child sexual abuse, the firm notes.
The victims' legal team has also unveiled a searchable database, the Catholic Clergy Offender Finder, documenting Catholic clergy members accused of sexual abuse or misconduct involving minors worldwide. The archdiocese, for its part, said the settlement timeframe is consistent with the large majority of claims coming forward today, and it has asked survivors to come forward, saying they will be received with dignity and compassion, per the Sun-Times report.
A Pattern of Recent Removals and Reversals
The archdiocese's public response to abuse claims has been uneven in recent months. In July, Cardinal Blase Cupich benched retired priest Fr. Kenneth Fleck from ministry across five Chicago-area parishes after learning a civil lawsuit alleging abuse from decades-old claims was set to be filed against him; Fleck denied the allegations while the archdiocese's Office of Child Abuse Investigations and Review opened an internal inquiry. In February, Fr. David F. Ryan was similarly pulled from active ministry in Lake Zurich amid a lawsuit alleging abuse at Maryville Academy in the 1990s.
But the archdiocese has also moved to clear priests and push back against accusers. In August 2025, Monsignor Daniel Mayall was reinstated after an independent review board found no reasonable cause to support the claims against him, and in January, Fr. Ronald Kondziolka was reinstated after his own allegation was deemed unfounded. In March 2025, the archdiocese went further, filing a lawsuit alleging a conspiracy to fabricate sexual abuse claims against a former priest in order to extort financial settlements.
How Chicago Compares to Other Dioceses
The Archdiocese of Chicago has one of the largest known concentrations of accused clergy in the country. A May 2023 report by the Office of the Illinois Attorney General followed a five-year statewide investigation into clergy abuse in Illinois. The report compiled findings from that investigation.
The archdiocese has an internal review mechanism for abuse allegations. Even so, former priest Daniel McCormack pleaded guilty in 2007, and settlements also involved his case.
Chicago's cumulative total now sits alongside major settlements reached by other U.S. archdioceses grappling with the same reckoning. In June, the Archdiocese of San Francisco agreed to a $395 million bankruptcy settlement covering more than 500 survivor claims. Other U.S. archdioceses have also grappled with the same reckoning.
