In latest fallout from predator priest, Chicago archdiocese settles sex abuse claim for $1.2 million

The Archdiocese of Chicago has agreed to pay $1.2 million to a man who said he was sexually abused when he was 12 years old by Daniel McCormack, a defrocked priest who was convicted of sexually abusing several boys, the man’s lawyer said Tuesday.

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The settlement announced by attorney Lyndsay Markley before a lawsuit was filed marks the latest chapter in the story of McCormack, one of the most notorious pedophiles in the history of Chicago’s archdiocese.

McCormack, who pleaded guilty in 2007 to sexually abusing five children while he was a priest at St. Agatha’s parish in Chicago, was released from prison last fall and has registered as a sex offender with the Illinois State Police. He was listed as living on the Near North Side.

The settlement follows other settlements in which the archdiocese has agreed to pay men who said they were abused by McCormack when they were children. The archdiocese has paid more than $12 million to men who filed lawsuits or settled cases involving McCormack before filing suit.

Like many of the victims, the man who filed the most recently settled lawsuit said he was sexually abused while McCormack was a priest at St. Agatha’s, saying he was attending an after-school program at the church when McCormack sexually abused him on multiple occasions in 2005.

Cardinal Blase Cupich’s aides declined to comment on the settlement.

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