CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago-Times
June 22, 2018
By Maudlyne Ihejirika
The Rev. Larry Dowling still remembers when he got the call from Cardinal Francis George asking him to consider serving as pastor of St. Agatha’s Church in North Lawndale.
It was 2007, and St. Agatha’s was in agony. The church at 3151 W. Douglas was at the center of the clergy sex abuse scandal rocking the Chicago Archdiocese, with its former pastor, the Rev. Daniel J. McCormack, accused — and later convicted — of abusing five boys.
“When I got off the phone, the scripture that came to mind was Jesus on the seashore with Peter, saying, ‘Do you love me?’ And Peter saying, ‘Yes. Yes. Yes.’ Jesus said, ‘Well if you really love me, I may take you where you don’t really want to go,’” said Dowling, who was then in his 10th year as pastor at St. Denis Church in Ashburn.
“I said, ‘But I still have some things I can accomplish here. I’m comfortable.’ What I heard back was, ‘I didn’t call you to be comfortable.’”
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