New Settlement In Ongoing Saga Of Felon Priest Daniel McCormack

The Archdiocese of Chicago will pay $950,000 to a person claiming abuse from Daniel McCormack. This is the latest consequence of the Archdiocese’s mishandling of a notorious abuser. 

Father Daniel J. McCormack has been called Chicago’s most infamous pedophile priest. The Archdiocese has received over 100 claims of child sex abuse against him. His actions and his superiors’ responses to credible allegations against him are an ongoing scandal for the Catholic Church.

Settlement The Latest Development In Father McCormack Saga

Allegations against McCormack date back to the early 1990s, when he was still in graduate school to become a priest. The school appears not to have disciplined McCormack for 2 allegations of abusing adults and 1 of abusing a child. 

In 1994, McCormack became a priest. Over the next decade, the church assigned him to parishes in the Chicago area that included Saint Ailbe, Holy Family and Saint Agatha. An audit revealed that the Archdiocese ignored allegations and suspicions about McCormack until 2005. What happened in 2005?

McCormack was arrested for sexually abusing a child. But he was ultimately not charged. He was arrested again in 2006. Between his first and second arrest, McCormack continued to teach at Our Lady of the Westside and, in one instance, took 3 boys on a trip out of town.

McCormack Pleads Guilty To Abusing 5 Boys

In 2007, McCormack pled guilty to abusing 5 boys in Saint Agatha parish. His victims were members of the basketball team McCormack coached and friends of his students. The court sentenced him to 5 years in prison.

McCormack served 2 years of his prison sentence. But after he was released in 2009, a court determined he was a danger to the public. He then spent over a decade in a detention facility for sex offenders. He was released in October 2021.

New Settlement Part Of Continued Reckoning Against McCormack And The Archdiocese

McCormack has served his time for the abuse of 5 boys, but the Archdiocese has received over 100 claims of child sex abuse against him. Other victims continue to seek justice for their abuse and for the Archdiocese’s failure to stop it.

As of 2022, the Archdiocese faced at least 10 civil lawsuits from victims seeking compensation for being abused by McCormack. In a deposition where McCormack was asked about the allegations, he pleaded the Fifth nearly 500 times.

The most recent development in this story is a lawsuit alleging abuse by McCormack in 2004. A person who filed the lawsuit alleged several incidents of abuse while participating in the SAFE (Saint Agatha’s Family Empowerment) program. The Archdiocese of Chicago agreed to pay $950,000 to settle the case in December 2024.

The lawyer who filed the lawsuit said she has already secured more than $9 million in settlements from the Archdiocese and the Catholic bishop of Chicago for McCormack’s abuses. 

McCormack is only one of over 200 priests in Illinois credibly alleged to have abused people.