CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Tribune
[Archive: Accused priest was rising star]
By Mitch Smith, Chicago Tribune reporter
September 5, 2013
Another person has come forward saying he was fondled by Daniel McCormack, a former Roman Catholic priest who was convicted of sexually abusing boys at his West Side parish.
In a lawsuit filed Wednesday in Cook County Circuit Court, an unidentified 21-year-old man alleges that, as a child, he was fondled twice by McCormack, who was the pastor at St. Agatha Catholic Church. The alleged victim was a student around 2003 and ’04 at St. Agatha, the lawsuit says. The plaintiff repressed memories of the abuse until this summer, according to the suit.
McCormack was considered a rising star in the Archdiocese of Chicago before boys from his parish came forward with abuse allegations. He was removed from the priesthood and sentenced to five years in prison in 2007. The archdiocese has since agreed to pay millions to settle civil claims regarding the former priest.
When McCormack came up for parole after serving 21/2 years of his sentence, the Cook County state’s attorney and the Illinois attorney general petitioned the court to have him committed under the Sexually Violent Persons Commitment Act, arguing that he remained a threat.
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