New Details on Cover-up Emerge in Case of Fr. C. John Mccloskey

SNAP
January 10, 2019

http://www.snapnetwork.org/media_statements

Earlier this week we learned that Catholic officials in New York and Chicago quietly moved an abusive priest and let him keep working around unsuspecting and vulnerable parishioners, even after paying nearly a million dollars to one of his victims. Making matters worse, those same officials had promised the victim that her abuser, Father C. John McCloskey would be kept away from others.

Yet the Washington Post reports today that, according to the Archdiocese of Chicago, “McCloskey was in fact allowed to minister with no restrictions for years afterward.” In this way, church officials both lied to the victim who they promised to help and then put others in harms way.

For almost 15 years, virtually no one was warned about Fr. McCloskey and the Church lied to at least one of his victims. Apologies are not enough. If these cover ups are to be stopped, complicit clerics must be held accountable. That should start with Fr. Peter Armenio, the man who was responsible for vouching for Fr. McCloskey after settling his abuse claim.