ILLINOIS
Patch
By Lorraine Swanson (Patch Staff) – July 1, 2016
Chicago, IL — A priest who unsuccessfully sued two brothers after they accused him of molesting them as children passed away suddenly on June 25.
Rev. Robert A. Stepek reportedly died while cutting grass in the heat. He was in his early 60s. The priest was a former associate pastor of Chicago’s St. Symphorosa Church and St. Christina Church and St. Joseph Church in Homewood. He was also the former pastor at St. Albert the Great Catholic Church in Burbank.
More recently he held down a civilian job as a community resource officer with the Burbank Police Department.
Stepek vehemently denied accusations that he had molested two brothers, then 9 and 16, at Symphorosa Church where had had serve from 1981 to 1983
The brothers waited until 2006 when they were adults before reporting that they had been sexually abused by Stepak in the 1980s. Stepek responded by filing an unsuccessful defamation lawsuit against the brothers while maintaining his innocence.
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