CHICAGO (IL)
Patch
By Dennis Robaugh (Patch National Staff)
Updated November 16, 2014
The Chicago Archdiocese granted a dying man’s final wish, bringing him a copy of the report on the priest who sexually abused him in the 1950s. On Friday, the Archdiocese dispatched its Victims Advocate to Hines Veterans Hospital and the bedside of Rick Springer, a taxicab driver and activist who spent years trying to hold the Catholic Church accountable for the misdeeds of its priests.
NBC Chicago’s Mary Ann Ahern, who has covered the church and sex abuse scandal for years, learned of the church’s effort to connect with Springer.
As he lay dying, the advocate read the file to him and allowed Springer to hold the document. He died Saturday afternoon at the age of 76. A memorial ceremony will be held on Monday.
“There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think about the abuse and how it’s affected my life,” Springer told Medill News Service in 2010.
He grew up on the North Side, in Rogers Park, and began attending a neighborhood Catholic church after his parents divorce in 1945 even though he was raised a Lutheran.
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