CHICAGO (IL)
WLS
[with video]
Chuck Goudie
April 22, 2014 (CHICAGO) (WLS) — A popular North Side Roman Catholic pastor, Father Michael O’Connell, is curbing contact with children until the latest sexual abuse allegation against him can be investigated, the ABC7 I-Team has learned.
O’Connell, pastor at St. Alphonsus Church in Lakeview, is once again under investigation by officials of the Archdiocese of Chicago and the Cook County Sheriff’s Department, after just being reinstated a week ago. The latest controversy comes after a former south suburban resident claims to have witnessed lewd acts by Father O’Connell 16 years ago in the locker room of a local health club.
The alleged sexual misconduct is said to have occurred in the late 1990s when O’Connell was assigned to Our Lady of the Woods in Orland Park.
The former south suburban resident says he contacted the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, SNAP, after learning that O’Connell was being reinstated after an investigation of a sex abuse claim made last December. That first accusation prompted O’Connell to “voluntarily” step aside from ministry during the investigation.
Now in his 30’s, the new accuser told police and church investigators on Tuesday that he saw Father O’Connell molest a teenage boy at a gym on S. Harlem Avenue.
“I saw Mike in the locker room with this young man who was sitting on the bench in the locker room and Mike had his, he was behind him and he had his hands down his pants in the frontal section,” the man told the I-Team.
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