The Archdiocese of Chicago won last week a court ruling that will allow it to proceed with a lawsuit against participants in a scheme to make false claims of clerical sexual abuse.

But the archdiocese has also warned that it expects to see an increase in historical abuse claims following a “change in the legal environment.”

In a June 12 statement from Cardinal Blase Cupich, the archdiocese announced that an Illinois judge had ruled against efforts to have the case dismissed.

“We are determined to press ahead with our defense against these false claims and the affront they represent to true survivors,” said the cardinal. “These individuals sought to take advantage of the archdiocese’s pastoral response to claims, which is to trust claimants, settle cases with compassion, and support survivors of abuse in their healing.”

The lawsuit was filed in March last year, in response to a 2024 lawsuit from a group of supposed victims of known abuser and laicized Chicago priest, Daniel McCormack. According to the archdiocese, the group of more than two dozen men, including incarcerated convicts, known gang members and murders, conspired for more than a decade to make false accusations of sexual abuse, including recruiting and coaching prospective fake victims.

The plan, which the archdiocese has called a “a racketeering enterprise among a web of connected individuals,” came to light when one of the men involved discussed the plan on a recorded phone call from an Illinois prison, saying...

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