BishopAccountability.org
	Archdiocese Settlements for Priest near $10m By Manya A. Brachear Chicago Tribune December 18, 2008 http://www.southtownstar.com/news/1337399,121808abuse.article Latest victim of sexual abusegets $1.1 million The Archdiocese of Chicago has agreed to pay $1.2 million to settle a lawsuit brought by the family of a boy who was sexually abused by the Rev. Daniel McCormack, an attorney for the family said Wednesday. Kenneth Cunniff said the settlement calls for $1.1 million to be paid to the boy, who now is 16, and $100,000 to the boy's mother. In September, the archdiocese agreed to pay $2.5 million to the boy's younger brother, who also was abused by McCormack. McCormack, 40, pleaded guilty in July 2007 to molesting five boys between the ages of 8 and 12 while he served as parish priest at St. Agatha Church on Chicago's West Side. He also was an algebra teacher and boys basketball coach at Our Lady of the Westside School. He was sentenced to five years in prison and is imprisoned at downstate Jacksonville pending a projected parole next September. The $1.2 million settlement, approved Tuesday in Cook County Circuit Court, involves allegations that in 2005, the boy, then 13, was sexually abused by McCormack at a White Sox game at U.S. Cellular Field. Most of the abuse of the five victims, to which McCormack admitted guilt, took place at the Our Lady rectory. The settlement was reached after two retired Cook County judges reviewed the case, heard from Cunniff and James Serritella, attorney for the archdiocese, and approved the final amount. In a written statement, the archdiocese said it "continues to encourage the use of alternatives to litigation such as mediation to resolve claims of sexual misconduct in a just, fair and compassionate manner." A report filed earlier this year by counselors for the two brothers said both suffer from "extreme sadness ... confusion, anger, shock, rage, mistrust of men." The older brother's academic grades went from As to Fs, according to the report. McCormack was not removed from the West Side parish and school until he first was charged in January 2006, several months after one of the allegations was made against him. A total of five lawsuits have been filed alleging sexual abuse by McCormack, and one remains pending. That case, alleging a boy was abused from the fourth through seventh grade, is awaiting Cardinal Francis George's deposition, according to the family's attorney, William F. Martin. So far, the archdiocese has agreed to pay nearly $10 million to settle claims arising from McCormack's conduct. Beyond the five boys McCormack admitted abusing, Illinois child welfare officials found credible evidence of his abuse of six other youths. Overall, the archdiocese has paid about $82 million to settle claims involving all clergy sex-abuse cases.
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.