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Chicago’s Cardinal George Gives Video Deposition In Priest Abuse Case

Chicago’s Cardinal George Gives Video Deposition In Priest Abuse Case

By Manya Brachear Pashman, Chicago Tribune

CHICAGO — Lawyers began recording the testimony of Cardinal Francis George on Thursday amid a widening scope of sex-abuse allegations against defrocked Roman Catholic priest Daniel McCormack, a precaution taken in the event that Chicago’s archbishop’s health prevents him from testifying in a future trial.

George announced in March that doctors discovered new cancer cells in his right kidney — his third cancer diagnosis in eight years — and underwent chemotherapy. Last week, a day after McCormack was arrested on new charges of sexual abuse, George disclosed that the search for his successor has begun and a new archbishop is expected to be named by late fall.

John O’Malley, a lawyer for the archdiocese present at Thursday’s filming, said recording an evidence deposition is “routine in court cases where the witness is elderly or has health issues.” Lawyers for the archdiocese as well as nine plaintiff’s lawyers will have a chance to question the cardinal during the process.

But unlike the rambling question-and-answer sessions conducted during the discovery phase of litigation, the deposition started Thursday was more formal and could be shared with a jury. If the cardinal is available at the time of trial, he will take the stand instead.

“We’re attempting to prove our case,” said Lyndsay Markley, an attorney for one of at least two dozen victims who still have pending lawsuits alleging abuse by McCormack. “Cardinal George is a central part of that.”

McCormack, 45, was removed from the priesthood after pleading guilty in 2007 to charges of criminal sexual abuse involving five victims. He has been incarcerated in a state mental health facility since completing his five-year prison sentence. He was arrested again last week and held without bail in a detention center after a new allegation surfaced that McCormack abused someone in 2005.

Lawyers in the room said the question-and-answer session never got hostile or adversarial. The deposition is expected to continue Tuesday. Only two of the nine plaintiff’s lawyers there Thursday got to ask questions.

In August 2008, George released the transcript of a sworn deposition detailing how the archdiocese handled the McCormack case. In that deposition, George revealed under oath the missteps that led to McCormack’s tenure at St. Agatha Catholic Church on Chicago’s West Side years after initial allegations of misconduct surfaced during his seminary days.

The arrest of McCormack spurred the archdiocese to commission an independent 2006 audit of what went wrong in the case. George has participated in at least two other sworn depositions.

“Given the number of victims there are, he’s incredibly remorseful that he failed to take the actions that he should’ve taken,” Markley said. “However, remorseful after the fact doesn’t correct it.”

AFP Photo/Justin Sullivan

Charges Filed In Beating, Robbery Of Elderly Chicago Priest

Charges Filed In Beating, Robbery Of Elderly Chicago Priest

By Rosemary Regina Sobol, Chicago Tribune

CHICAGO — Charges were filed against a parolee who is accused of beating and robbing an elderly priest at his South Side Chicago Catholic church in 2011.

Jerrell Harris, 21, was charged with aggravated battery, home invasion, and robbery, police said.

Harris was picked up Thursday as he was paroled from Pinkneyville Correctional Center on a separate case.

Harris admitted to taking part in the armed robbery and aggravated battery of the Daniel Mallette on Dec. 6, 2011 at the rectory of St. Margaret of Scotland Church, according to a police report.

Police are still seeking a second attacker.

“Enough already,” said the now-retired Mallette who was reached by phone Friday morning, referring to violence, in general.

“I don’t have anything to say at this time,” he added, saying it was the first he had heard of the arrest.

Mallette had battled violence and poverty from his South Side Catholic church for decades when he became a victim of violence when two masked men broke into the church rectory and beat and robbed him, authorities said at the time.

The robbers, dressed in black like “ninjas,” entered the Mallette’s upstairs bedroom at the rectory of St. Margaret of Scotland Church at about 12:30 a.m. that day and woke him up, police said at the time.

They dragged him out of bed and forced him to his knees and demanded to know “where the money was,” according to a police report.

Mallette, who was 80 at the time of the attack, said there was no money, and the robbers started hitting him in the face and body with a blunt instrument, police said. He fell to the ground and they began kicking him a “couple of times,” according to the report.

The priest finally told them there was a safe in the basement. The robbers forced him to the basement, but Mallette couldn’t get into the safe because the keys didn’t work, police said. He then told the robber there was another safe in his bedroom closet with a combination that he knew.

The robbers took $600 from it and fled the rectory, police said.

Mallette, who was pastor emeritus at the 83-year-old church, suffered broken ribs and a swollen face, Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart, a close friend of the priest, said at the time.

Photo: Sully Pixel via Flickr

Dutch Priest Who Lived In Syria For Decades Is Slain At Home

Dutch Priest Who Lived In Syria For Decades Is Slain At Home

By Patrick J. McDonnell and Nabih Bulos, Los Angeles Times

BEIRUT — A Dutch priest who lived in Syria for almost five decades and refused to evacuate this year from the rebel-held Old City area of Homs was shot and killed at his residence early Monday, according to official accounts.

Father Frans Van der Lugt was eulogized by the Vatican as a “man of peace” who stayed behind in the ravaged Old City to assist a dwindling population of Christians and Muslims suffering the devastating effects of an almost two-year siege. Like Pope Francis, he was a Jesuit.

“This is the death of a man of peace, who showed great courage in remaining loyal to the Syrian people despite an extremely risky and difficult situation,” Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi told reporters.

His death prompted an outpouring of grief on Twitter and other social media forums. Pictures of the priest’s body, in white clerical garb and placed in a coffin, were also circulated on the Web.

The motive for killing Van der Lugt, who was in his 70s, was not clear.

The Syrian state media blamed “armed terrorist groups” — the government’s description for armed rebels.

Various opposition groups denied involvement and alleged that the government killed the priest in a bid to inflame sectarian tensions and justify military bombardment of civilian districts. A statement from the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front condemned the killing as a “heinous act.”

According to the official media, “terrorists” opened fire on the priest at dawn at the Jesuit residence in the Bustan al-Diwan district in the Old City of Homs. The area is under the control of Islamist rebels.

Other accounts indicated that one or two gunmen arrived at the priest’s door, forced him outside and shot him in the head.

In February, the bespectacled Jesuit declined to leave the Old City as the United Nations arranged for the evacuation of more than 1,400 people, including a remnant population of fewer than 100 Christians. The quarter was once home to thousands of Christians and many churches. Most of the churches, like area mosques, have suffered heavy damage, clerics said.

The priest said it was his duty to remain with his “flock.”

Van der Lugt, reportedly a trained psychotherapist, occasionally spoke to journalists and helped publicize the plight of people living under siege in Homs, suffering from a lack of food, medical attention and other basic services.

The Syrian military had cut off the area for almost two years, trapping rebels and several thousand civilians inside the warren of streets and alleys in the sprawling Old City, now largely reduced to rubble by shelling and gun battles. Snipers from both sides prevent entry and exit from the area.

“I do not accept that we drown in a sea of hunger, letting the waves of death drag us under,” the priest said this year in a widely circulated video clip. “We love life. We want to live. And we do not want to sink in a sea of pain and suffering.”

His killing could spark new concerns for the fate of Syria’s Christian minority, who accounted for about 10 percent of the population before the armed conflict erupted three years ago. Many Christians express fears for their community’s existence should Islamist-led rebels manage to overthrow the government of President Bashar Assad.

AFP Photo/Ahmad Aboud