CHICAGO (IL)
Daily Southtown
Tuesday, January 31, 2006
By Lisa Donovan and Frank Main
Special to the Daily Southtown
Cardinal Francis George was peppered with the same question again and again Monday night: Why would a priest interrogated by police about allegations of child molestation be allowed to continue teaching and ministering at a Roman Catholic school?
The head of the Archdiocese of Chicago, George told the approximately 300 gathered at St. Agatha Catholic Church on the West Side that he was sorry — that he should have done more to make sure Rev. Daniel McCormack abided by a church order not be alone with children.
"I'm truly sorry you had as a pastor ... a person who was accused of being child molester," George said, describing the allegations against McCormack — if true — as "destructive of the soul and destructive of the church."
There are 750 families in the parish at 3147 W. Douglas, which includes Our Lady of the West Side School. Most at the meeting offered tense but polite reverence to George as he met for more than two hours with them about the abuse allegations dating back five years.