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COOK COUNTY RECORD

Thursday, March 28, 2024

Two men allege Catholic church allowed priest to sexually abuse them as children

Two men are suing the Chicago archdiocese, alleging they were raped as children by a priest.

Two unnamed individuals filed a lawsuit June 18 in Cook County Circuit Court against the Archdiocese of Chicago and the Catholic bishop of Chicago.

According to the complaint, from 1986 to 1994, Daniel McCormack was a seminarian in the archdiocese's seminary system and during that time the archdiocese received information and reports that McCormack was engaged in sexual abuse against children seminarians, including that he fondled the genitalia of "drunk, passed out or sleeping seminarians."

In 1994, the archdiocese ordained McCormack a priest and assigned him to work directly with children, the suit says, and in October 1999, the archdiocese received notice McCormack again may have sexually touched a minor. Nevertheless, the lawsuit states, he was promoted to pastor of St. Agatha's Parish, providing him more unsupervised contact with children.

During the following six years, the lawsuit states, McCormack engaged in even more inappropriate sexual activity with children.

On Oct. 15, 2005, the archdiocese's professional review board recommended McCormack be removed from St. Agatha's Parish, the lawsuit states, but he wasn't removed from the parish until mid-January 2006, when police arrested him over charges of sexual abuse.

The plaintiffs, both of whom allege to have been sexual abused by McCormack, seek damages of $100,000 each, $50,000 from each of the defendants, plus costs. They are represented by attorney Mark R. McKenna of Hurley, McKenna and Mertz in Chicago.

Cook County Circuit Court case number 2015L006189.

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