The Archdiocese of Chicago and the Order of St. Benedict

Philips, IL: (May-17-07) The list of plaintiffs suing Fr. Terrence Fitzmaurice for sexual abuse has grown by five, including a woman who alleges the priest raped her in 1979 and fathered her now 27-year-old son. Fitzmaurice served St. Patrick's & St. Mary's Catholic churches, and later Our Lady of the North Catholic Church in Phillips, from 1987-2000. Earlier, five men filed sexual abuse lawsuits against the priest alleging that they met Fitzmaurice in the early 1970's when he was assigned to St. Procopius Church in Chicago, serving as the director of then Mayor Richard Daley's Summer Youth Employment Program. The men were between the ages of 11 and 14 years of age when they encountered the priest. In November 2006, the Archdiocese of Chicago and the Order of St. Benedict agreed to pay a six-figure settlement with three other men who claimed to have been molested by Fitzmaurice during his service in Chicago. Perry Collins, a lead plaintiff in that suit claimed that Fitzmaurice took him to a building adjacent to St. Procopius Church on the south side of Chicago when he was 10-years-old and assaulted him. The remaining plaintiffs Dervin Frazier, Willie Evans, Dennis Wright and Berna Matlock, all gave descriptions similar to Collins' about their encounters with Fitzmaurice. [THE BEE: PRIEST MISCONDUCT]

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Published on May-18-07