Archdiocese of Chicago settles sex abuse lawsuit at $1.2 million

CHICAGO (AP) – The Archdiocese of Chicago has agreed to pay $1.2 million to a man who claimed he was sexually assaulted at age 12 by a fired priest convicted of sexually abusing multiple boys, the man’s lawyer announced on Tuesday.

The settlement of the case before filing a lawsuit was announced in a press release by Attorney Lyndsay Markley and marks the latest chapter in the history of Daniel McCormack, one of the most notorious pedophiles in the history of the Archdiocese of Chicago.

McCormack, who pleaded guilty in 2007 to the sexual abuse of five children while he was a priest at St. Agatha’s parish in Chicago, was released from prison last fall and registered with the Illinois State Police as a sex offender. According to published accounts, he was listed as living in Chicago’s Near North neighborhood at the time.

The settlement follows other similar settlements in which the archdiocese has agreed to pay men who claimed to have been molested by McCormack when they were children.

Like many of the other victims, the man who filed the recently settled lawsuit said he was sexually assaulted when McCormack was a priest at St. Agatha. According to the press release, the man claimed he was attending an after-school program in the community when McCormack sexually abused him on multiple occasions in 2005.

The archdiocese declined to comment on the settlement.