ILLINOIS
Chicago Daily Law Bulletin
January 11, 2017
By Lauraann Wood
Law Bulletin staff writer
Two brothers who allege they were victims of sexual abuse by a former Catholic priest have settled their lawsuit for $2.7 million.
The brothers — who are identified as John Doe A and John Doe B in the lawsuit — sued the Archdiocese of Chicago in 2014, alleging it allowed Daniel McCormack to be ordained as a priest and placed him in a church to teach and mentor children despite having knowledge of prior sexual misconduct allegations against him.
Cardinal Francis George appointed McCormack to serve as pastor of St. Agatha’s Catholic Church and Our Lady of the Westside School in 2000 on the city’s West Side, a post in which McCormack served until 2005.
He was placed in the position despite the archdiocese’s knowledge that McCormack faced prior allegations of sexual abuse against both fellow seminarians and young children in previous places he served in the 1980s and 1990s, according to the Does’ lawsuit.
McCormack’s alleged abuse of the Doe brothers began near the end of a summer camp program they attended at the church and school in 2004 and went into the 2004-2005 school year, said Mark A. Brown, a partner at Lane & Lane LLC who represented the plaintiffs. They did not attend the school but were attending a daily after-school program at the time, he said.
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