‘Credibly accused’ priest worked at St. Joseph, St. Mary’s in Norwalk

NORWALK (CT)
Laredo Morning Times

April 12, 2019

By Pat Tomlinson

A priest who once served at a South Norwalk parish were added to the list of “credibly accused” clergy for sexual abuse of minors in the Bridgeport Diocese.

Bishop Frank Caggiano, in a March 22 statement, added 10 names to a list of nearly 30 priests, living and dead, who are accused of sexual abuse and at some point served in the Diocese of Bridgeport.

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“It is with much regret and concern for all those who are survivors of sexual abuse that I must announce that the following ten clergy who served in the Diocese of Bridgeport have been added to our list of Credibly Accused Clergy,” Caggiano wrote.

The Rev. James McCormick is among those added to the list. He served at St. Joseph Parish, 85 South Main St., and St. Mary’s, 669 West Ave., according to Tremont Sheldon Robinson Mahoney, a Bridgeport law firm that has represented dozens of abuse victims in lawsuits against the diocese since 1993.

McCormick served at St. Joseph Parish from 1951 to 1954, during which time he was twice accused of soliciting young men, once in 1953 and another in 1954. Both are believed to have been minors at the time, according to Caggiano’s statement.

One of these incidents was reported to the diocese by the police in 1953, according to Caggiano, but no further action was taken. His ministry was reportedly restricted in 1954 by Bishop Lawrence Shehan.

A full review of McCormick, who was ordained in 1916, was conducted in 2019 — more 50 years after McCormick’s death — and the allegation “deemed credible.”

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