CHICAGO (IL)
Southtown Star
By Mike Nolan mnolan@southtownstar.com October 3, 2013
A group that represents victims of clergy abuse is calling on the Archdiocese of Chicago to remove the Rev. Robert Stepek from a job he’s held for nearly seven years as a police department counselor in Burbank.
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests President Barbara Blaine, speaking Thursday outside the archdiocese offices, said Stepek, former pastor at St. Albert the Great Church in Burbank, “should not be in a position of power and authority over people.”
At least three men have accused Stepek of sexually abusing them when they were boys, and the archdiocese previously had found credible the allegations of two brothers who alleged they were abused by Stepek when he was at St. Symphorosa Church in Chicago in the early 1980s.
The archdiocese removed Stepek from the ministry at St. Albert in November 2006 while the allegations were being investigated. The priest filed a defamation lawsuit against the brothers, claiming they were fabricating their allegations in hopes of a large cash payouts.
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