CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Sun-Times
Seven years ago, Cardinal Francis George testified about “the one egregious time” he said the Archdiocese of Chicago’s efforts to protect children under his leadership “failed to our great shame.”
He was talking about former priest Daniel McCormack.
McCormack sexually abused children on George’s watch while assigned to St. Agatha Parish on Chicago’s West Side. Arrested in January 2006, McCormack wasn’t removed from the priesthood until November 2007. He pleaded guilty that year.
“I had thought he was being supervised,” George said in a 2008 deposition. “And it wasn’t adequate.”
The cardinal’s handling of sex abuse allegations against McCormack and other priests in the archdiocese mar his legacy in the eyes of some.
“We would never wish anyone the kind of pain that we understand that he had to endure with his cancer,” Barbara Blaine, president of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, said after George’s death Friday.
Still, she said the cardinal, who died Friday after years battling cancer, was “reckless” when it came to dealing with abusive priests.
“He left children at risk,” Blaine said, “even after he promised he wouldn’t do that.”
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