Accuser who settled $2 million child sex abuse lawsuit against the Catholic church dies at 43
A far southwest suburban man has died at age 43, a year and a half after reaching a $2 million settlement with the Catholic church over a lawsuit alleging he was sexually assaulted as a student by an Augustinian priest who ran Providence Catholic High School in the 1990s.
Robert Krankvich’s death in April appears to have been the result of dire health problems brought on by years of drug and alcohol abuse, according to family who believe those troubles stemmed from the sexual abuse he faced from the Rev. Richard McGrath at the New Lenox school.
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.
Under pressure, province leaders released a public list of alleged offenders in 2024 but kept McGrath’s name off, saying the accusations against him “were not established” according to their own guidelines.
https://chicago.suntimes.com/the-watchdo...ugustinian
A far southwest suburban man has died at age 43, a year and a half after reaching a $2 million settlement with the Catholic church over a lawsuit alleging he was sexually assaulted as a student by an Augustinian priest who ran Providence Catholic High School in the 1990s.
Robert Krankvich’s death in April appears to have been the result of dire health problems brought on by years of drug and alcohol abuse, according to family who believe those troubles stemmed from the sexual abuse he faced from the Rev. Richard McGrath at the New Lenox school.
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.
Under pressure, province leaders released a public list of alleged offenders in 2024 but kept McGrath’s name off, saying the accusations against him “were not established” according to their own guidelines.
https://chicago.suntimes.com/the-watchdo...ugustinian
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
