A Will County lawsuit claims a priest who died in 2014 had sexually abused a minor who attended a Catholic elementary school in Villa Park in the early 1990s.

The lawsuit was filed on Monday against the Diocese of Joliet by the alleged victim, who is going by the pseudonym John Doe in the case.

John Doe’s lawsuit claims the Rev. John F. Barrett, who died in 2014, had sexually abused him while he was attending St. Alexander Catholic School in Villa Park between 1991 and 1992.

The lawsuit alleged the Diocese of Joliet “breached its duty” of reasonable care to John Doe by allowing Barrett to remain a pastor at the school despite past allegations of sexual abuse by a separate accuser.

In 2002, Barrett was removed from ministry when the latter accuser claimed he was sexually abused by Barrett in 1968 at Notre Dame Catholic Church in Clarendon Hills, according to a 2002 article from the Chicago Tribune.

In the article, diocesan chancellor Sister Judith Davies was quoted saying an independent review was “unable to substantiate the allegation by gaining further information from the accuser or by finding any evidence to support his accusation.”

John Doe’s lawsuit claims the accuser had reported the allegations in 1991 but the Diocese of Joliet did not remove Barrett from ministry nor investigate the claims at the time.

The claims were not taken seriously until the accuser reported the allegations a second time in 2001, the lawsuit alleged.

The lawsuit claims Barrett was reinstated after he threatened to take legal action against his accuser, as well as the diocese for publicly naming him as a priest with sexual abuse allegations.

The lawsuit cites a 2023 report from Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul’s Office detailing information on 451 Catholic priests and religious brothers who abused almost 2,000 children in the state over seven decades.

The report included 69 documented cases in the Diocese of Joliet, which includes Will, Grundy, Kendall, DuPage and three other counties, and almost doubles what was reported by the diocese in 2018.

“In the context of all Illinois dioceses, the Diocese of Joliet has been ahead of the curve in installing policies and procedures to respond to and prevent clerical child sex abuse,” the attorney general report states. “Even so, the diocese has demonstrated slavish adherence to off-the-books, unwritten policies that derail justice for abuse survivors and much-needed institutional transparency.”