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    False sex abuse claims against priests — while rare — can hurt real victims and innocent clergy, experts say

    by Angie Leventis Lourgos, Chicago Tribune May 01, 2023 8 minutes
    Parishioners raise their hands in worship as the Rev. Michael Pfleger leads the Sunday morning service at St. Sabina Church on June 6, 2021. "It's good to be home," an emotional Pfleger said to a packed and jubilant crowd at St. Sabina Church– his first time leading a congregation in five months.

    CHICAGO — The sexual abuse supposedly occurred in 2003 at St. Agatha Catholic Church on Chicago’s West Side.

    Accuser “John Doe” claimed in court documents that as a young boy he had been sexually assaulted multiple times during the after-school SAFE program by Daniel McCormack, a defrocked Chicago priest who pleaded guilty in 2007 to sexually abusing five children while serving at St. Agatha’s parish.

    Memories of the abuse were repressed until 2020, according to court documents, when Doe filed a lawsuit against the former priest and the Chicago Archdiocese, seeking monetary damages.

    Except the entire story was later proven in court to be a fabrication, seemingly in an attempt to get a settlement.

    As the Catholic Church continues to grapple with a global decadeslong clerical sex abuse scandal, one ramification that’s emerged is fraudulent claims against priests and other members of the clergy.

    While data seem to indicate these kinds of false allegations are uncommon, they do occur — and experts say the fallout can hurt real sex abuse victims as well as innocent clergy members, who often live in fear of one day standing falsely accused.

    Larry Antonsen, a Chicago leader of the , worries that fraudulent claims can have a chilling effect on real survivors of sexual abuse who might refrain from coming forward for fear they won’t be believed — an added

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