ILLINOIS
Patch
By LORRAINE SWANSON (Patch Staff)
October 7, 2015
A group representing victims of clergy abuse is taking U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez to task for statements he made praising a Des Plaines priest suspended amid allegations of an “inappropriate relationship” with an adult man.
Kate Bochet, a leader from SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, blasted Gutierrez’s remarks and public support of Rev. Marco Mercado as “insensitive,” which could potentially stifle or intimidate other victims of sexual abuse from coming forward.
Archbishop Blaze J. Cupich removed Mercado from his post rector of the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Des Plaines and the priest’s “authority to minister” while the Archdiocese of Chicago conducts an investigation into a relationship that Mercado is said to have had with another adult man. The priest also served as Archbishop Cupich’s delegate to Hispanic ministries.
The Des Plaines priest was the invited guest of Gutierrez to hear Pope Francis’s address to Congress during the pope’s visit to the United States last month. Gutierrez, a Democrat who represents the 4th Congressional District, issued a statement praising the popular Des Plaines priest as an important spiritual and community leader.
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