If you were a kid at Maryville under Father John Smyth, we believe you.
Thirty-three years he ran that place. Half of Chicago called him a saint. Some of the kids who lived there have been saying something else for a long time now, and lately, courts have been listening.
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6 questions. Your answers are private and go to one person.
Looking for the page about the place, not the man? Maryville Academy survivors.
This applies to you no matter what
- He was famous. Notre Dame basketball, the fundraisers, the politicians at the dinners. None of that is evidence of anything, and a court will not treat it as evidence of anything.
- He is dead. He died in April 2019, three months after the Archdiocese removed him. The claims that are moving forward are against Maryville and the Archdiocese, and both are very much alive.
- Nobody believed you then. Or you tried once, got the look, and never tried again. That is, more or less, the story of everyone who has come forward.
- You were a ward of the state, or you had a record after. Same answer as on every page we run: it doesn't change your right to ask.
- You are asking for a brother, a husband, a friend who lived there and can't do this himself. Reach out anyway.
Father John Smyth and Maryville: what the public record says, and when
None of what follows is ours. It is the Archdiocese, the courts, DCFS and the reporters who covered them, and every line links to its source. Smyth was never charged with a crime and never admitted anything; he died before any case reached a courtroom. The word for everything below is allegation.
1970 to December 2003
Smyth ran Maryville Academy for 33 years, most of them with several hundred state wards in his care at any one time. In 2002 and 2003 the state pulled its kids out and cancelled the contract after a report called the campus a dangerous environment. Sun-Times, September 2003.
January 18, 2019
The Archdiocese of Chicago withdrew Smyth's faculties and removed him from ministry over allegations dating to 2002 and 2003. It reported them to DCFS and the Cook County State's Attorney. Sun-Times.
April 16, 2019
Smyth died. Eleven people had accused him by then. DCFS closed its own inquiry that June because he was gone; the Archdiocese said it would pick its investigation back up. Daily Herald.
September 2019
The first lawsuit naming Smyth was filed against the Archdiocese of Chicago, brought by former state wards. CBS Chicago.
January 2021
Four six-figure settlements paid by the Archdiocese to Smyth accusers, according to the accusers' lawyer, with the count of people coming forward at twenty or more. CBS Chicago.
July 31, 2025
About thirty former residents are now plaintiffs in consolidated Cook County cases naming Maryville, Smyth and Father David Ryan. Their lawyers say the Academy knew and concealed it. Sun-Times.
We checked this on September 11, 2026, and the newest thing in it is from July 31, 2025. When something new gets filed or decided, it goes in here within 72 hours, with the link.
Who answers for what Father Smyth is accused of
You can't sue a dead man in any way that matters. What you can do, and what the people ahead of you have done, is sue the institution that handed him several hundred children a year and kept handing them over. Maryville Academy: named in the Cook County cases. The Archdiocese of Chicago, which sat above Maryville the whole time: the defendant in the very first Smyth suit in 2019, and paying his accusers out of its own pocket by 2021. Same theory every time. They knew, or had every reason to, and nobody did a thing.
One thing worth saying plainly. The Archdiocese has never put Smyth on its list of clergy with substantiated allegations, even while settling with his accusers. A lawyer will know what to make of that. You don't have to.
Your deadline: the Illinois statute of limitations for childhood sexual abuse
For most people who were kids at Maryville in the 1990s, there is no deadline. Illinois removed the statute of limitations for childhood sexual abuse in 2014 (735 ILCS 5/13-202.2), and the courts have been clear that it stays removed.
The exception is claims that had already run out before the law changed, because Illinois won't bring a dead claim back to life. Roughly, born in 1983 or later means your claim was still alive in 2014 and you can file on age alone. Born earlier and it depends on two things: when you first understood the harm, and what Maryville or the Archdiocese said, or hid, along the way. Concealment by an institution keeps the door open under a separate Illinois rule. It has worked before, against a diocese, for five million dollars.
So the honest answer is: probably no clock, possibly a path anyway, and either way it's a conversation, not something you can settle from a web page.
Your situation still qualifies even if
- It wasn't Smyth himself. Another priest, a counselor, a staffer; the case is against the institution either way.
- You have never said it out loud to anyone.
- You loved the place, or parts of it. Plenty of people did, and that doesn't cancel anything.
- A lawyer told you, years back, that it was too late. Illinois changed that law in 2014, so ask again.
- You live somewhere else now. Most former wards do.
Where he was
Maryville Academy in Des Plaines, where he was superintendent from 1970 to the end of 2003 and assistant superintendent for eight years before that · Notre Dame College Prep in Niles, and other Archdiocese assignments, after 2003. If your contact with him was somewhere else, tell us anyway.
Questions people are asking
Who was Father John Smyth?
Anybody who grew up Catholic on the Northwest Side could have told you, back then. He was Maryville. Thirty-three years running it, 1970 until the state forced him out at the end of 2003, and he'd already been there since 1962. The Archdiocese didn't remove him until January 2019, and what it cited then were allegations out of 2002 and 2003, the very end of his run. He died that April, 84 years old, nothing ever tested in a courtroom.
Was Father Smyth ever charged?
No. The Archdiocese referred the allegations to DCFS and the State's Attorney in 2019, and he died three months later. Nobody was ever going to charge a dead man, which is why the civil cases against Maryville and the Archdiocese are where this lives now.
Can I still sue if Father Smyth is dead?
Yes, because the lawsuits were never really about his estate. They're against Maryville Academy, where about thirty former residents have cases going right now, and against the Archdiocese, which settled with several of his accusers before any of the current cases were filed.
Is there a statute of limitations for child sexual abuse in Illinois?
Mostly, no. Since January 1, 2014, Illinois hasn't had one, as long as the claim was still alive that day. Claims that had already lapsed under the older rules are the exception. Those need discovery or concealment facts, and that is the whole reason we ask whether you were born in 1983 or later.
How much does a sexual abuse lawyer cost?
Nothing, here. Every case is on contingency. The lawyer is paid only out of what is recovered, and if nothing is recovered you owe nothing. Not for the call, not for the review, not for the case.
Will anyone find out I came forward?
Not from us. Your answers go to one person at ME2, and the lawsuits already filed were brought under John Doe names. A lawyer will walk you through how that works before anything is filed, and nothing is filed unless you say so.
Who sees your form
Kerim Eravci · Survivor Advocate · Not a lawyer
I was a victim, and I waited. Not because I didn't know what happened to me (I knew every day), but because I'd decided it was over, mine to carry, nobody's business. When I finally went looking for a lawyer, the answer came back in two words I'd never thought about: statute of limitations. My time had run out while I was busy getting through it.
What that has cost me since is a long story, and I'll tell you the whole thing in private, if you want it. The short version is the reason my name is on this page: I'm here to help people do what I wish I'd done, which is find out where you stand while the door's still open.
I'm not a lawyer. I read what you send, I call you once, on your terms, and nothing gets filed unless you say so. Ask sooner than I did.
Kerim Eravci is not an attorney. He's a survivor.
What happens next. Three steps, nothing more until you say so.
- You answer 6 questions. Nothing is filed. Nothing starts.
- A survivor calls you, once. Not a robot, not a call center. Someone who has been where you are.
- You decide. You find out your options. If you want to stop there, you stop there.
How this works
ME2 Survivors Alliance protects the heart. Licensed Illinois attorneys do the legal work. We are not lawyers and we don't pretend to be.
You never pay a dollar
Every case is on contingency. There is no charge for the call, the review, or the case. The firm is paid only out of a recovery, and if there is no recovery you owe nothing.