ILLINOIS
Oakpark.com
[with copy of her statement]
An interview with sex abuse survivor Gail Peloquin Howard
Friday, August 15th, 2014
By Ken Trainor
Staff writer
Gail Howard graduated from Ascension School in 1961 and Trinity High School in 1965. Recently she went public in accusing former Ascension pastor Monsignor John Fitzgerald of sexually assaulting her in the Ascension rectory. The incident took place in 1964 when she was 17.
Fitzgerald, now deceased, was pastor of the south Oak Park parish from 1951 to 1973.
In consideration of her mother, Dorothie Peloquin Cahill, who worked at the rectory for many years, Howard said she did not speak of the incident until 2002, when she met with the Voice of the Faithful, Bridgeport, Connecticut chapter (using an alias), and did not report the incident to the Archdiocese of Chicago until 2005, when she met with them in person.
While attending the annual conference of SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests), she appeared at a press conference July 31 outside the Archdiocese’s Chancery Office, 835 N. Rush St., and, for the first time, made her accusation fully public.
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