A lawsuit has been filed against the Springfield Catholic Diocese accusing a priest of sexually abusing a boy at a Taylorville parish in the early 1990s.
The Chicago-based law firm of Gould, Grieco and Hensley said it filed the lawsuit in Sangamon County.
The lawsuit claims Father John O’Connell sexually abused the boy on church grounds while the youth was an altar boy and student at St. Mary’s Catholic School and Parish from 1991 to 1994. O’Connell died in 2002.
A statement from the diocese to the State Journal-Register did not comment on pending litigation but encouraged reporting of sexual abuse of a minor by clergy to the Diocesan Child Abuse Reporting and Investigation or to the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services.