Chicago Archdiocese sues over 'racketeering scheme' involving false sex abuse claims
http://www.myspiritfm.com/News?blogid=Catholic-News&view=post&articleid=283270&link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0
Holy Name Cathedral in Chicago. / Credit: Edlane De Mattos/ShutterstockCNA Staff, Mar 26, 2025 / 11:20 am (CNA).The Archdiocese of Chicago this week filed a lawsuit alleging a "racketeering enterprise" among a group of individuals who reportedly filed false abuse claims against a former priest to receive compensation from the Church there. The archdiocese said in a Monday statement that it had filed a lawsuit in Cook County circuit court "seeking injunctive relief and damages from participants of a wide-ranging racketeering scheme" that reportedly involved "more than a dozen" fraudulent abuse claims against disgraced former priest Daniel McCormack, who spent more than a decade in prison after pleading guilty to abusing young children.Lawyers for the diocese did not respond to requests for comment and for a copy of the lawsuit on Wednesday morning. The diocese said in its press release that some of the participants in the alleged scheme are "convicted felons and known gang ...
Holy Name Cathedral in Chicago. / Credit: Edlane De Mattos/Shutterstock
CNA Staff, Mar 26, 2025 / 11:20 am (CNA).
The Archdiocese of Chicago this week filed a lawsuit alleging a "racketeering enterprise" among a group of individuals who reportedly filed false abuse claims against a former priest to receive compensation from the Church there.
The archdiocese said in a Monday statement that it had filed a lawsuit in Cook County circuit court "seeking injunctive relief and damages from participants of a wide-ranging racketeering scheme" that reportedly involved "more than a dozen" fraudulent abuse claims against disgraced former priest Daniel McCormack, who spent more than a decade in prison after pleading guilty to abusing young children.
Lawyers for the diocese did not respond to requests for comment and for a copy of the lawsuit on Wednesday morning. The diocese said in its press release that some of the participants in the alleged scheme are "convicted felons and known gang members," including allegedly one convicted murderer.
The alleged fraudulent claimants are "associated by gang affiliation, friendship, or family," the archdiocese said, with the conspirators reportedly working together to determine "what to say, how to pursue a false claim, how to embellish purported injuries, and how to reach attorneys."
Some of the alleged fraudsters reportedly discussed the scams on prison phone calls. One of the defendants reportedly told a fellow conspirator that he did not go to MCormack's church and "wasn't even in" any programs involved with him, and yet he he still received compensation.
The Cook County circuit court has already ruled on two other fraudulent abuse cases, the archdiocese said. The filing "reflects the breadth of the fraud and seeks to expose the conspiracy that has become a criminal enterprise for those involved," the statement said.
"False claims make it necessary to investigate all claims more aggressively, which places a greater burden on true survivors," archdiocesan attorney James Geoly said.
"Our attention is directed toward survivors, not fraudsters seeking to gain financially from others' pain and suffering," he added.
McCormack pleaded guilty in 2007 to multiple abuse charges. He served a sentence in prison and was then remanded to a state facility for sex offenders.
He was released from custody in 2021 and currently lives in Chicago, where he is registered as a sex offender. The Illinois attorney general's office described him as "one of the most infamous child abusers anywhere in Illinois."
Full Article
http://www.myspiritfm.com/News?blogid=Catholic-News&url=10&view=post&articleid=291358&link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0
An unborn baby at 20 weeks. | Credit: Steve via Flickr (CC BY-NC 2.0)Jan 21, 2026 / 15:49 pm (CNA).A federal health spending bill would impose a long-enforced ban on using taxpayer funds for elective abortion, known as the Hyde Amendment.The U.S. House is set to consider the bill this week, which would fund the departments of Labor, Education, and Health and Human Services. Lawmakers would need to pass spending bills in both chambers and send them to the White House by Jan. 30 or the government could face another partial shutdown.Republican President Donald Trump had asked his party to be "flexible" in its approach to the provision in a separate funding bill. According to a Jan. 19 news release from the Republican-led House Appropriations Committee, the Labor-HHS-Education spending bill includes the provision "protecting the lives of unborn children" known as the Hyde Amendment.The Hyde Amendment, which is not permanent law, was first included as a rider in federal spending...
http://www.myspiritfm.com/News?blogid=Catholic-News&url=10&view=post&articleid=291355&link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0
Bishop Sebastian Tudu of Dinajpur celebrates Mass at the Shrine of Mary the Protector on Jan. 16, 2026. | Credit: Stephan Uttom RozarioJan 21, 2026 / 12:00 pm (CNA).Thousands of pilgrims gathered at a Marian shrine in northern Bangladesh on Jan. 16 to express gratitude to Mary for protecting villagers during the country's 1971 War of Independence.The annual pilgrimage at Nabai Battala village in the Rajshahi Diocese concluded a nine-day novena with a Mass celebrated by Bishop Sebastian Tudu of Dinajpur. The pilgrimage commemorates an incident during Bangladesh's war for independence from Pakistan when Pakistani soldiers surrounded the village church but left without harming anyone inside."It is not like this that Mother Mary does not listen to anyone's prayers," Tudu said in his homily. "The people of Nabai Battala have already received the grace of Mother Mary. During the War of Independence in 1971, they trusted Mother Mary to save their lives. And Mother Mary has indeed prot...
http://www.myspiritfm.com/News?blogid=Catholic-News&url=10&view=post&articleid=291352&link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0
The traditional procession of Holy Week takes place annually in Ayacucho, Peru. | Credit: Milton Rodriguez/ShutterstockJan 21, 2026 / 10:00 am (CNA).A Pew Research Center report found Catholics remain the largest religious group across Latin America despite increases in other religious identities.The report, "Catholicism Has Declined in Latin America Over the Past Decade," draws on a nationally representative face-to-face survey of 6,234 adults conducted from Jan. 22 to April 27, 2024, in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru. The analysis was produced by Pew Research Center as part of the Pew-Templeton Global Religious Futures project, which analyzes religious change and its impact on societies around the world.The research released Jan. 21 found that Latin American adults are more religious than adults in many other countries Pew has also surveyed in recent years, especially in Europe where many adults have left Christianity since childhood.Pew analyzed the...
