A SEX abuse survivor from the Illinois Catholic Church has shared that a former cop went silent when he came forward with his abuser's name as the ex-officer knew that the abuser was a serial offender.
Dan Ronan, now 63, was only 11 years old when Father Thomas Gannon abused him after an evening mass.
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Almost 50 years passed and Ronan kept quiet about the assault, not telling anyone until about four years ago.
Ronan searched for Gannon's name on Google to see if he was still alive.
Gannon died in 2011, but in 2019, Georgetown University's student newspaper, The Hoya, came out with an article claiming that Gannon sexually abused minors at three different institutions.
After making this disturbing discovery, Ronan called the Archdiocese of Chicago and spoke with a former cop who handled sexual abuse allegations about the priesthood.
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"The situation is so bad, they actually have to have a cop who investigations allegations to see if they're legitimate or not," Ronan exclusively told The U.S. Sun.
"And so, I called her, and I told her the guy's name, and there was this long pause, long, long, long, long pause and I thought the call had disconnected," Ronan recalled.
The former cop eventually replied after Ronan asked if she was still on the line.
Once she clarified the abuser's name, Gannon, the former cop said: "We've got quite a file on this fella," according to Ronan.
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"And I said: 'Oh boy, how bad?'" Ronan recalled. "And she started to detail all of the allegations against him. And it's a pretty long file."
"I mean, he's clearly a serial offender," Ronan said.
Gannon was named in the Attorney General's Report on Catholic Clergy Child Sex Abuse in Illinois, which was released in May.
The report alleges that more than 300 Catholic clerics abused more than 1,000 children in a 70-year period from 1950 until 2019.
RONAN'S EXPERIENCE
The abuse that Ronan suffered happened in the fall of 1971 when he was an altar boy at Saint Jerome Roman Catholic Church in the Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois.
In the hours before his assault, Ronan was having trouble doing the job of two altar boys at mass since they were short a person.
After mass, Ronan was in the church's sacristy, a preparation room, getting ready to go home when Gannon, who was in his mid-to-late 30s, came in.
"I could see immediately that he was in an angry mood," Ronan said.
"He was probably six-foot-one and 240. He was a big boy. Big man ate a lot and easily could overpower me, which is what he did," said Ronan who called himself a runt and had a broken arm at the time.
Ronan said Gannon was belligerent as he yelled at him for doing a bad job at mass.
"The next thing I know, he grabbed me and put his arms around me and like a bear hug, and he unzipped his fly and put my hand on his penis and told me what to do," Ronan recalled.
Ronan froze at first but then was able to escape and run home.
"I never told anybody. I didn't tell my grandparents. I didn't tell my parents; I didn't tell my best friends; I didn't tell anybody. No one, no one knew," Ronan said.
SEEKING ACCOUNTABILITY
Despite his traumatic experience as a child, Ronan went on to be very successful in his career as a journalist, winning eight Emmys and two Edward R. Murrow Awards.
However, he still was struggling mentally.
"I had come through a real difficult period in my life. I had gone through a divorce. I had had cancer and beat cancer," he explained.
Ronan continued: "I was sort of starting to sort my life out and get my life back and on track, and I was still dealing with some baggage."
That's when Ronan Googled Gannon's name and found the Georgetown article that exposed the sexual abuse allegations against him.
In 1983, Gannon abused a minor at a church in Highland, Indiana, according to the U.S. Midwest Province of the Society of Jesus.
He also abused minors when he taught at a high school in Ohio during the 1960s and at two parishes in Chicago in the 1990s, Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church and Holy Family Church, the Midwest Province said.
"It hit me like a ton of bricks," Ronan said.
He continued: "It hit me so, so hard and I got angry and I said: 'You know, I've let this guy occupy space in my head for the last 50 years, 45, 48 years, whatever it's been, I've let this guy occupy space in my head and I'm done doing that.'"
After Ronan made the call to the former cop, he was connected with a counselor who was provided by the church.
Additionally, he negotiated a low six-figure settlement with the Archdiocese of Chicago and the Midwest Province Jesuits.
"I also insisted that I get an apology from Cardinal Cupich and Brian Paulson, who is the national provincial for the Jesuits.
"He's the top Jesuit priest in the country," Ronan said, noting that he and Paulson became friends.
Ronan said he hopes for Illinois to repeal its statute of limitations for civil child abuse claims like Maryland recently did.
This allows survivors to file a lawsuit based on child sex abuse allegations at any time.
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Ronan said he has started to have conversations with government officials in Illinois to help get the law changed.
However, "There's still a long way to go," Ronan said.
