Catholic order found California abuse complaint credible, then moved priest to Chicago area
The Rev. Timothy Keppel was overseeing two parishes near San Bernardino, Calif., when a man told the diocese there that, while in his teens, he'd been repeatedly sexually abused by the priest.
The Resurrectionist religious order determined the accusations were credible. So it barred him for life from public ministry.
Yet Keppel - who was moved to the order's Chicago region, its U.S. headquarters - continued to have a role with the Resurrectionists, despite being ordered to dedicate his life to "prayer and penance" as a church-imposed sanction.
He was on the organizing committee for a 2017 fundraiser in Des Plaines. And based on interviews and records, he has lived next to two high schools in the city and suburbs, neither which appears to have been told of the child sex abuse accusations.
• For the full story, visit chicago.suntimes.com.