The Archdiocese of Chicago has put a priest who served two parishes in the north suburbs and in the Lincoln Park neighborhood on leave after the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services opened a probe into allegations that he abused children.
Father Martin Nyberg faces accusations of child molestation and exploitation, Cardinal Blase Cupich wrote Friday in two letters to parishioners. He was a deacon in St. Paul of the Cross Parish in Park Ridge between June 2023 and May 2024 and is currently an associate pastor in Lincoln Park’s St. Josaphat Parish. Nyberg “strenously denies” the allegations, Cupich wrote.
The archdiocese’s independent review board was also investigating the allegations and Nyberg agreed to “step aside from ministry” until the probes were complete, Cupich said.
Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul released a 700-page report last year listing 451 Catholic clerics and religious brothers who abused at least 1,997 children across all six dioceses in Illinois, between 1950 and 2019. The state launched an inquiry into sexual abuse by Illinois clerics in 2018.
Cupich said in a written statement at the time that no clergy member “with even one substantiated allegation against him is in ministry in the Archdiocese of Chicago.”
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