Victims Blast Cupich for Fr. Mccormack Case Statement

SNAP
April 8, 2015

http://www.snapnetwork.org/victims_blast_cupich_for_fr_mccormack_case_statement

Archbishop Blase Cupich showed today that he deals with clergy sex crimes and cover ups no better than his predecessor did.

Two more civil abuses and cover up lawsuits are being filed tomorrow against the archdiocese for the dreadfully deceitful and reckless way top Catholic officials kept Fr. Daniel McCormack on the job around unsuspecting families despite repeated warnings and “red flags” of inappropriate behavior.

Instead of a truly pastoral response, Cupich’s public relations team repeated the old “distancing” maneuvers that Catholic bishops have used for decades when discussing predator priests.

“Daniel McCormack is no longer a priest,” archdiocese spokeswoman Susan Burritt said in a statement. “He was removed from public ministry in February of 2006 and laicized (removed from the priesthood) in November 2007.”

That’s common knowledge. That tells no one anything that’s helpful.

Wouldn’t it have been reassuring had Cupich shown real courage and compassion and told his public relations team to say something like:

“I won’t be satisfied until every single McCormack victim has been found and helped and until every single McCormack enabler on the church payroll has been exposed and punished.

“Since McCormack spent time in the Gary Indiana diocese, I am asking my colleague there, Bishop Donald Hying, to join me in aggressively begging every single person who may have suffered, suspected or suffered crimes by McCormack, or cover ups by church officials, to speak up, expose wrongdoers, call police, get help, protect others, deter deceit and start healing. We’re putting notices in every single parish bulletin in the archdiocese urging those with information or suspicions about McCormack to come forward to police and prosecutors now.”

But no such luck. Cupich, who works hard to be seen as a “reformer,” sent out today the same old carefully-crafted, lawyer-written boilerplate statement implying that he has little power to do anything about McCormack at this point and let’s all just forget about it.

It’s very disappointing.

Ironically, Cupich’s statement on McCormack came out on the same day Pope Francis, in a homily, said

“All of us adults are responsible for children . . .when it is a question of children, we should not hear those formulas of office legal defense such as: “after all, we are not a welfare entity”; or “In privacy, each one is free to do what he wishes”; or also “we don’t like it, we can’t do anything.” These words are not right when it is a question of children.”

But that’s precisely what Cupich is saying about McCormack. Instead of doing something helpful, Cupich ducks and dodges and pretends to be powerless, saying what the Pope himself admits is wrong to say: “we can’t do anything.”

As SNAP president Barbara Blaine said a few months ago:

“Many assume that the public knows all about the Fr. McCormack case. It does not. We are convinced there is crucial information about how Chicago Catholic officials dealt with this notorious predator that church figures are still hiding. Just as important, we believe, is information about others clerics who committed and concealed awful crimes against kids that is similarly still being hidden.”

“Archdiocesan officials have put out a very sanitized version of how they handled pedophile priests. Parents, police, parishioners, prosecutors and the public deserve more. We hope this new, ground-breaking suit will pry that helpful information out of the files, hands and mouths of current and former top Catholic officials here.”

“Kids are still being assaulted by Catholic clergy. Bishops are still hiding predator priests. So something more and new must be tried so that more of the truth can be revealed, more of the wrongdoers can be exposed, and more of the vulnerable can be protected.”

(SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, is the world’s oldest and largest support group for clergy abuse victims. We were founded in 1988 and have more than 20,000 members. Despite the word “priest” in our title, we have members who were molested by religious figures of all denominations, including nuns, rabbis, bishops, and Protestant ministers. Our website is SNAPnetwork.org)

Contact - David Clohessy 314-566-9790, davidgclohessy@gmail.com, Barbara Dorris 314-503-0003, bdorris@SNAPnetwork.org, Barbara Blaine 312-399-4747, bblaine@SNAPnetwork.org

Two new lawsuits to be filed over alleged McCormack sexual abuse

Posted: 04/08/2015, 02:36pm | Jordan Owen

Two more lawsuits will be filed Thursday against the Archdiocese of Chicago, alleging sexual abuse by convicted child molester and defrocked priest Daniel McCormack.

The lawsuits, filed on behalf of “John T. Doe 24” and “John M. Doe,” will be filed in Cook County Circuit Court on Thursday by the law offices of Lyndsay A. Markley, according to a statement from the law firm.

One of the men alleges he was abused on and off between 2001 and 2006, beginning when he was 7 years old, according to the attorneys. The other alleges he was sexually abused on two occasions in 2001, when he was 14. Both were part of an after-school program—”Safe”—at St. Agatha Parish on the West Side.

“Daniel McCormack is no longer a priest,” archdiocese spokeswoman Susan Burritt said in a statement. “He was removed from public ministry in February of 2006 and laicized (removed from the priesthood) in November 2007.”

“No priest with even one substantiated allegation of sexual abuse of a minor serves in ministry in the Archdiocese of Chicago today,” Burritt added.

McCormack was originally arrested for sex crimes in January 2006, the Sun-Times reported previously. He pleaded guilty in 2007 to abusing five children while he was a parish priest at St. Agatha. He was sentenced to five years in prison.

Last year, McCormick was charged with aggravated criminal sexual abuse in a 2005 incident involving a boy who was a minor at the time, according to the Sun-Times. He was denied bond in that case and is being held at a treatment center.

Each six-count suit seeks more than $300,000 in damages.