Former St. Pete Catholic High School Priest Indicted for Sex Abuse in Massachusetts

The Reverend Richard McCormick, a member of the Catholic religious order the Salesians of Don Bosco and a former teacher at St. Petersburg Catholic High School, has plead not guilty to five counts of raping a child in the 1980’s at the Salesians’ Sacred Heart Retreat House, a summer camp in Massachusetts. McCormick, now 71, taught English and theology at St. Petersburg Catholic high school before being removed from that post in 2002. His removal stemmed from a complaint from a student who told school officials that the priest had kissed her.
McCormick was arrested Thursday afternoon by New Ipswich police and charged with five counts of child rape that occurred in the early 1980’s. McCormick was arrested at the Salesian residence for priests in New Rochelle, New York.
Fr. McCormick is no stranger to sexual abuse allegations and sexual abuse lawsuits. At least nine other people have sued him and the Salesian Order to which he belongs for sexual abuse. Abuse allegations go as far back as 1963 until 1982 (not counting the one made in St. Petersburg in 2002). Three sexual abuse lawsuits were filed on behalf of young men who alleged McCormick abused them while he was the rector of the Salesian minor seminary in Goshen New York in the late 1970’s.