Lawsuit: ‘Tag team’ of former priest, ex-scout leader molested kids

A new lawsuit is filed against the Chicago Archdiocese on behalf of three people who say they were sexually abused as children.

A lawsuit filed Thursday in Cook County Court alleges Norbert Maday molested three boys as part of a tag team with a scout leader who volunteered under the priests supervision.

The men who brought the legal action also accuse the Archdiocese of Chicago of failing to protect them more than 40 years ago during the abuse.

The unnamed plaintiffs, all in their 50s, said the legal action was sparked after media accounts in recent years revealed the churchs troubled past of responding to pedophile priests.

Maday is accused in the lawsuit of inappropriately touching all three boys in separate acts from 1967 to 1973 while he was at St. Leo Catholic Church in Chicago and, later, at St Louis de Montfort in Oak Lawn.

Two of the men said they also were fondled by Thomas Hacker, a former Boy Scout leader and volunteer at the Oak Lawn church in the early 1970s, who often accompanied them on parish retreats.

In an interview at his lawyer's office, a 52-year-old south suburban man identified as John Doe 3 said Maday seemed to target boys like him at St. Louis de Montfort, who were being raised by single mothers.

The man told the Tribune he was inappropriately touched by both Maday and Hacker as a preteen during car rides, gym class and parish outings. He said he eventually told his mother, who confronted the parish school principal, but Maday remained in ministry.

The man said he overcame years of substance abuse and depression and remains in counseling. He has not returned to the Catholic church since he was young.

It's hard to grasp that someone who you think is in God's word would take advantage of a child's innocence, said the man, who asked not to be named publicly. That's something that cuts me real deep. Officials at the archdiocese said they had not seen the lawsuit and did not have a response.

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Lawsuit: 'Tag team' of former priest, ex-scout leader molested kids