From Mahound's Paradise
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| Fr. Richard McGrath (pictures displayed on a board at the April 12th press conference given by Bob Krankvich and his lawyers) |
According to my sources, Cardinal Cupich's office follows Mahound's Paradise assiduously.
They don't apparently read the Chicago Sun-Times as carefully, at least when it comes to its reporting on Illinois clerical sex-abuse cases.
In April of this year, Bob Krankvich, a man now in his 30's gave a press conference alleging that he had been groomed, molested and raped over a period of many months in 1995-96 by Fr. Richard McGrath the former principal of Providence Catholic High School in New Lenox, Illinois.
Krankvich was 13-15 at the time.
Fr. McGrath retired and left the school at the end of 2017 amidst a cloud of suspicion in a separate case when a female student reported seeing gay child porn on his cell phone.
The press conference and subsequent developments over the next few months were covered by the Sun-Times and the rest of Chicago media. Unsurprisingly, the New Lenox Patch also ran a number of stories on the case.
It was one of the more lurid clerical sex-abuse stories in Illinois for 2018. Here were some of the headlines:
Providence HS sued as prosecutors weigh charges against former principal (Chicago Sun-Times, April 12)
Ex-Providence Catholic president under investigation for alleged sexual abuse of student, police say (Chicago Tribune, April 12)
Former Providence Catholic High School student sues over sex abuse allegations (ABC7 Chicago, April 12)
Former Catholic school head sued for abusing student(Fox 32 Chicago, April 12)
New Lenox priest under criminal investigation for allegations of sexually abusing student (WGN9 Chicago, April 12)
Fr. McGrath Committed Anal Rape Of Providence Teen: Lawyer (New Lennox Patch, April 12)
Acting president of Providence Catholic officially taking over after predecessor retired amid investigation (Chicago Tribune, April 20)
A few months earlier, the Chicago Tribune had reported on the cell phone porn allegations, which had "stalled" (and then ended) when Fr. McGrath simply refused to hand over his cell phone to police.
Police close investigation into former Providence Catholic president facing criminal charges (Chicago Tribune, February 17, 2018)
Meanwhile, after the press-conference, the Patch continued to report:
Providence's Fr. McGrath Resurfaces In Chicago (New Lennox Patch, July 25)
New Lenox is in the diocese of Joliet, and Fr. McGrath is a member of The Midwest Augustinians. But he had now apparently "resurfaced" in the St. John Stone Friary in Hyde Park on Chicago's Southside, only yards away from both a preschool and a Catholic grade school.
This morning, the Chicago Sun-Times picked up on the story, adding a new piece of information:
Archdiocese didn’t tell schools priest in sex abuse probe was their new neighbor (Chicago Sun-Times, September 21)
Why didn't the archdiocese inform the schools? The answer was purportedly given by Chicago archdiocese spokesperson Paula Waters in an extraordinary statement, according to the Sun-Times. Waters claimed that while the archdiocese knew the former longtime Catholic high school principal was now living in Hyde Park it did not notify the schools because "it wasn’t aware McGrath is under investigation over sexual abuse allegations."
Is this answer credible?
I will withhold comment on that.
But maybe no one in Cupich's office ever saw any of those stories or forgot about them or whatever. They're busy people.
What were they doing on April 12?
I don't know, precisely.
But I do know this. April 12 was the second and final day of testimony in the Review Board investigation of Fr. Frank Phillips of St. John Cantius, the traditionalist priest charged with "improper conduct involving adult males." Fr. Phillips would later be exonerated, according to all credible reports, though the archdiocese would later strip him of his positions and faculties anyway and collaborate in effectively exiling him to St. Louis without any further explanation.
Archdiocese spokesperson Waters was caught making a number of false or questionable statements about that.
Everyone involved knows that the Cardinal and his office were a bit obsessive about the Fr. Phillips case. So maybe the story of a New Lenox High School Principal priest accused of the anal rape of a minor was temporarily a bit off their radar.
We all have our priorities.
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