CHICAGO (IL)
WLS
[statement from the Chicago archdiocese]
Chuck Goudie
December 8, 2013 (CHICAGO) (WLS) — The pastor of one of Chicago’s oldest Roman Catholic parishes Sunday is facing an allegation of child sex abuse and is removed from his duties, the ABC7 I-Team has learned.
Fr. Michael O’Connell, the pastor of St. Alphonsus Church at 1429 W. Wellington in Chicago’s Lakeview neighborhood, has “voluntarily” stepped aside according to the administrator of the parish, Rev. Shawn Gould.
Pastor O’Connell “is no longer residing at the parish,” Rev. Gould told the I-Team. The parish also has an elementary school, Alphonsus Academy and Center for the Arts.
In a letter to parishioners obtained by the I-Team, O’Connell was said to have “stepped away from the day-to-day administration of the parish pending an investigation of an allegation against him of sexual abuse of a minor.” While there are no details of the case under investigation, Gould states that the “allegation has not arisen from an event related to St. Alphonsus Parish.”
Before being assigned by the Archdiocese of Chicago to the Lakeview church on July 1, 2012, O’Connell was pastor at Our Lady of the Woods in Orland Park for 15 years.
The Archdiocese of Chicago said in a statement that “an allegation that he engaged in sexual misconduct with a minor almost 20 years ago while at his previous parish.”
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