shooting incidents, Montroy accused a local white group of vigilantism and the local pastor of trying to oust him. In December 1971, Zuroweste excommunicated Bernard Bodewes, a diocesan priest he had sent to Cairo to help Montroy. Bodewes had sued Zuroweste for $7,350 in damages for withholding his pay since January 1st. Bodewes said that Zuroweste had withheld the pay because he was angry over Bodewes' support of Montroy's initiatives in Cairo. By 1972, Zuroweste took action to evict Montroy and the organizations working in Saint Columba. When Zuroweste retired in 1977, Pope Paul VI named Auxiliary Bishop William Cosgrove of the Diocese of Cleveland. as the next bishop of Belleville. Cosgrove served until his retirement in 1981. Pope John Paul II replaced Zurowete that same year with Reverend John Wurm from the Archdiocese of St. Louis. Wurm died three years later. John Paul II then appointed James Patrick Keleher of the Archdiocese of Chicago as the new bishop of Belleville. In 1993, the pope named Keleher archbishop of St. Louis.Auxiliary Bishop Wilton Gregory of the Archdiocese of Chicago was appointed by John Paul II as bishop of the Diocese of Belleville in 1993. In 2004, the pope named him as archbishop of the Archdiocese of Atlanta. The current bishop of Belleville is Michael G. McGovern from the Archdiocese of Chicago, appointed by Pope Francis in 2020. In July 2022, McGovern announced the planned sale of the diocesan bishop's residence and his move to a more modest space in the Cathedral of St. Peter rectory. The money from the sale, he announced, would be used to subsidize various ministries and charities, including the establishment of a fund benefiting expectant mothers and children. Sexual abuse During a 2008 lawsuit against the Diocese of Belleville, information was revealed about Bishop Zuroweste's treatment of a child abuser priest. In 1973 Gina Parks, a 16 year-old parishioner in St. Francisville, Illinois, told diocesan officials that her parish priest, Raymond Kownacki, had raped and impregnated her. Kownacki also encouraged Parks to have an abortion. After hearing her story, Zuroweste did not report the allegations to the police or initiate an investigation. Instead, he transferred Kownacki several months later to St. Theresa Parish in Salem, Illinois, without any restrictions. By 1982, allegations surfaced that Kownacki was sexually abusing young boys at St. Theresa, resulting in the 2008 lawsuit. On October 27, 2020, Bishop McGovern removed Reverend