CatholicPhilly.com
27 July 2012
By Matthew Gambino
Father Andrew McCormick, a 56-year-old archdiocesan priest, was arrested late Thursday, July 26 and charged with seven counts related to the sexual assault of a then 10-year-old altar boy in Philadelphia in 1997.
The priest was arrested and charged with involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, statutory sexual assault, sexual assault, endangering the welfare of a child, corrupting the morals of a minor, indecent assault and indecent exposure.
Father McCormick had been placed on administrative leave since March 2011 in the wake of concerns raised through the second Philadelphia grand jury report into clergy sexual abuse of children, released the previous month. The allegation leading to his arrest was reported in December 2011 directly to Philadelphia police.
In a statement, the Archdiocese said it was unaware of the allegation.
District Attorney Seth Williams said at a press conference July 27 that the “boundary violations” that led the Archdiocese to suspend Father McCormick occurred in 2004.
Father McCormick has been pastor of Sacred Heart Parish in Swedesburg, Montgomery County since 2004. Years earlier he had served at St. John Cantius Parish in the Port Richmond section of Philadelphia. That is where the sexual assault is alleged to have occurred.
According to a lead investigator, Captain John Darby of the Philadelphia Police, and Williams, the victim was a student in the parish school and an altar boy. After Masses the priest would invite the boy to the rectory to share cookies. Later in time he was invited upstairs to the priest’s living area. Eventually in late fall or early December of 1997, “sexual contacts began with this little boy,” Darby said.
The victim finally brought the allegation forward last December. Williams said that although some family members of the now 25-year-old man wanted to report it to Church authorities, other relatives persuaded the man to report it to police investigators.
“I applaud the courage of this man,” Williams said. “He was able to do what, sadly, so many other victims of sexual abuse have not been able to do: come forward and tell police.”
The DA’s Special Victims Unit investigated the claim and interviewed potential victims and witnesses, culminating in Father McCormick’s arrest at his parents’ home near Pottstown.
He had been leaving with them while on administrative leave, a capacity in which he could not exercise his public minister, celebrate the sacraments or present himself publicly as a priest.
At the press conference Williams said recent intense media coverage of the Penn State and clergy sexual abuse scandals brought the “nightmare” of the assault back for the victim.
Williams hoped that such coverage would encourage more victims to come forward to get help dealing with their experience.
“Too many victims, if they don’t get help, end up perpetrating the same crimes,” he said.
According to the Archdiocese, Father McCormick had the following parish assignments since his ordination in 1982:
St. Adalbert, Philadelphia (1982-1986);
St. John Cantius, Philadelphia (1986-2000);
St. Bede the Venerable, Holland (2000-2004);
Sacred Heart, Swedesburg (2004-2011).
Both the district attorney’s office and the Archdiocese urged anyone with more information to contact the Philadelphia Police Department Special Victims Unit at 215-685-3251 or the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Family Violence and Sexual Assault Unit at 215-686-8080.
Williams indicated the investigation into Father McCormick’s case and that of other priests placed on administrative leave are ongoing.
Even after two waves of announcements this year by Archbishop Charles Chaput concerning other suspended priests on May 4 and July 6, 12 still remain on administrative leave and some of their cases are being investigated by the DA’s office.
The February 2011 grand jury report identified 37 priests. In addition to the 21 announced in March of last year, three priests were placed on administrative leave after the report was released.
Five others, according to an archdiocesan statement at the time, “would have been subject to administrative leave. However, one who was already on leave and two who are incapacitated have not been in active ministry. Two others no longer serve in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia…. The remaining eight priests will not be subject to administrative leave. The initial independent examination of these cases found no further investigation is warranted.”
With Father McCormick’s case, Williams said it is still open because the priest had taken a number of boys from St. John Cantius Parish on trips to Poland, and those interviewed are incomplete. The group of boys did not include the individual making the allegation for which Father McCormick was arrested.
He was arraigned July 27 and his bail set at $150,000. His case is scheduled for a preliminary hearing Aug. 17.
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Priest charged after accuser, prompted by Penn State case, emerges
The Chicago Tribune
27 July 2012
Dave Warner
Reuters
5:25 p.m. CDT, July 27, 2012
PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) – A Roman Catholic priest has been charged with the 1997 sexual assault of an altar boy, who was emboldened to come forward by the high-profile prosecutions of Monsignor William Lynn and former Penn State assistant coach Jerry Sandusky, authorities said on Friday.
The arrest of suspended priest Andrew McCormick, 56, who a prosecutor said “had a pattern of grooming altar boys,” capped a tumultuous week for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, the sixth largest in the nation with 1.5 million members.
Days earlier, Lynn, the most senior clergyman convicted in the U.S. church pedophilia scandal, was sentenced to up to six years in prison for covering up child sex abuse by priests in Philadelphia. Prosecutors also said they would retry a priest who went to trial with Lynn but whose attempted rape case ended in a mistrial.
McCormick’s accuser, now a 25-year-old man, told police in December he had been abused in the church rectory as a 10-year-old boy.
“News coverage of things going on out there, Penn State, and investigations involving other priests in this area,” prompted him to come forward, Philadelphia Police Captain John Darby, head of the department’s Special Victims Unit, told a news conference.
McCormick was charged with involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, statutory sexual assault, sexual assault, endangering the welfare of a child, corrupting the morals of a minor, indecent assault and indecent exposure, said District Attorney Seth Williams.
Authorities said those crimes occurred at St. John Cantius church in the city’s Bridesburg section in 1997.
Williams said he believed there were other victims in the case.
“Mr. McCormick had a pattern of grooming altar boys,” Williams said.
“I applaud the courage of this young man,” he said. “With every new sexual assault arrest and conviction like Monsignor Lynn, we hope that more victims will have the courage to come forward.”
McCormick was arrested in suburban Pottstown, Pennsylvania, where his parents live.
The archdiocese said McCormick was one of several priests placed on administrative leave in March 2011 after a grand jury report on child sex abuse by priests and others tied to the archdiocese.
“Since that time Father McCormick has not been permitted to exercise his public ministry, administer any of the sacraments, or present himself publicly as a priest,” the archdiocese said.
(Editing by Barbara Goldberg and Peter Cooney)
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Priest charged with sexually assaulting young boy
philly.com
July 27, 2012|By Mensah M. Dean and Daily News Staff Writer
AFTER HEARING of the Jerry Sandusky and Philadelphia Catholic priests child-sexual-abuse cases in December, a 25-year-old man found the courage to tell police about his alleged ordeal of being sexually assaulted by his Catholic priest when he was 10 years old in 1997, Philadelphia law-enforcement officials said Friday.
And the young man had quite an tale to tell against the Rev. Andrew McCormick, District Attorney Seth Williams said.
“I applaud the courage of this young man,” Williams said. “He was able to do what, sadly, so many other victims of sexual abuse have not been able to do: come forward and tell the police.”
Williams said that McCormick assaulted the boy inside the rectory at St. John Cantius Church in Bridesburg.
To keep him quiet, the priest reportedly told the boy, “Masturbation is a sin, homosexuality is a sin, premarital sex is a sin, and lying is a sin.”
An investigation by the D.A.’s office and the police Special Victims Unit led to an arrest warrant for McCormick, 56, who turned himself in Thursday.
He’s been charged with involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, statutory sexual assault, child endangerment and related counts.
McCormick was arraigned Friday, his bail was set at $150,000 and his preliminary hearing is scheduled for Aug. 17, the D.A.’s office said.
His arrest comes in the same week that Monsignor William Lynn became the highest-ranking Catholic Church official in the U.S. to be sent to prison for taking part in covering up clergy abuse of children. A Philadelphia judge on Tuesday sentenced Lynn to three to six years in state prison for his conviction on one count of child endangerment.
McCormick was one of 21 priests placed on administrative leave by the Archdiocese of Philadelphia in March 2011 in response to concerns noted in a February 2011 grand-jury report.
“The cases of those placed on leave at that time ranged from allegations of sexual abuse to boundary issues with minors. Since that time, Father McCormick has not been permitted to exercise his public ministry, administer any of the Sacraments, or present himself publicly as a priest,” the Archdiocese of Philadelphia said in a statement.
McCormick’s alleged victim was a student, parishioner and altar boy at St. John Cantius at the time of the assault, said Capt. John Darby, of the Special Victims Unit.
McCormick, ordained in 1982, last served at Sacred Heart Parish in Swedesburg, Montgomery County, from 2004 until his removal in March 2011.
He met his alleged victim while serving at St. John’s from 1986 to 2000. He then moved to St. Bede the Venerable Parish, in Holland, from 2000 to 2004.
There is reason to believe that McCormick victimized other youths, said Williams.
He urged anyone with information about crimes committed by McCormick or any other priest to call the Special Victims Unit at 215-685-3251 or 215-685-3265 or the D.A.’s Family Violence and Sexual Assault Unit at 215-686-8080.
Contact Mensah M. Dean at 215-568-8278 or deanm@philly.com or on Twitter at @mensahdean.