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	Sex Abuse Victims Fight Former Priest's Release By Diane Krieger Spivak The Post-Tribune January 20, 2011 http://www.post-trib.com/news/lake/3029520,new-cathprotest0120.article MERRILLVILLE -- Members of a clergy sex abuse survivors support group gathered in front of the Gary Diocese Pastoral Center on Wednesday, calling for the bishop's help in keeping a former priest convicted of child sex abuse behind bars. The demonstration coincided with the appearance of the former priest -- Daniel McCormack -- in Cook County, Ill., Circuit Court Wednesday seeking release from a mental facility. Barbara Blaine, president of Chicago-based Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, and fellow survivors Therese Albrecht, of Chicago, and Thomas Whitcomb, of Portage, held signs calling for the diocese to "Protect the Children." They also held school and First Communion photos of themselves and others during the times they had been sexually abused by those in religious careers, including priests and nuns. Whitcomb said he had been molested in 1968 and 1970 at ages 9 and 11, by a teen who had suffered sexual abuse at the hands of two priests at St. Paul Church in Valparaiso. McCormack has served his sentence after pleading guilty in 2007 to abusing five boys in Chicago. The state declared him a violent sex offender and placed him in a mental health facility. Cook County Circuit Court Judge Dennis Porter ruled Wednesday that McCormack's fate should be decided by a jury and that he should remain in the facility until then. "We want Gary's bishop to intervene to keep him (McCormack) jailed," SNAP Executive Director David Clohessy said in a letter to the Most Rev. Dale J. Melczek, bishop of the Diocese of Gary. Melczek, who said he had not been contacted by the S.N.A.P., confirmed McCormack has family at St. Mary Parish in Crown Point, but said McCormack had never worked at St. Mary. "He was visiting for a First Communion," Melczek said, adding McCormack was given permission by the pastor to concelebrate a Mass. "That's different than working in a parish or being able to be alone with children," Melczek said. "I've never met Father McCormack," he said. The Vatican also defrocked or "laicized" the Rev. Richard Emerson, a former chancellor in the Gary Diocese, Melczek said. Emerson, who is no longer in the Midwest, faces several civil child sex lawsuits, in both Lake County and in Orlando, Fla. SNAP said church records show Melczek knew of concerns about inappropriate behavior on Emerson's part, but Melczek said at the time no one had expressed allegations of sex abuse. Melczek said the year after he was appointed bishop by Pope John Paul II in August 1992, he instituted procedures for dealing with allegations of sexual abuse by members of the clergy and others in the diocese. "We outlined clear steps to be taken when a complaint is issued," Melczek said. Additionally, the diocese is audited annually for maintaining a safe environment by an outside agency, made up mostly of retired FBI agents, Melczek said. SNAP said that isn't enough. "It's crucial that they take tangible steps to better protect the vulnerable and heal the wounded," SNAP's letter, dated Wednesday, said. "It will be a big disappointment if Bishop Melczek does not take some action," Blaine said. Melczek said he has removed two priests on the basis of sex abuse against children. They are Emerson, formerly with St. Thomas More in Munster and Monsignor Donald Grass, former pastor of St. Mary in Crown Point. Last year Melczek placed the Rev. Terrence Chase on administrative leave as pastor of Queen of All Saints Church in Michigan City amid allegations of sexual abuse 20 years ago in Chesterton, "until the case is determined," Melczek said.
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