Settlement Reached In Abuse Lawsuit Involving 'Predator Priest'

CHICAGO — Two former altar boys reached an $880,000 out-of-court settlement with the Archdiocese of Chicago over claims they were sexually abused by defrocked priest of Norbert Maday while attending a South Side Catholic grammar school in the 1970s.

The two victims claimed Maday exploited them repeatedly over 35 years ago when they were students at St. Bede the Venerable School. The students were 10 and 13 years ago when the abuse was said to have taken place.

Maday is accused of folding and groping the boys’ genitals and buttocks, showed them pornography and masturbated in front of them, according to the complaint. The disgraced priest also encouraged the plaintiffs and other boys to consume alcohol before and during the abuse.

>>> Former Our Lady of the Ridge Altar Boy Recalls 'Predator Priest'

A settlement was reached on March 22, negotiated by attorneys Jason Friedl and Martin Gould, of Chicago-based law firm Romanucci and Blandin.

“It is incredible the impact this type of abuse has on a child, and it creates intense personal challenges for the rest of their lives,” Gould said in a news release. “The strength and courage required to come forward with this experience cannot be underestimated, and we acknowledge our plaintiffs for their bravery.”

A spokesperson told Patch that the Archdiocese of Chicago does “not comment on suits, claims or settlements.”

In 1993, Maday was arrested for sexually molesting two altar boys from Our Lady of the Ridge while on a field trip across the Wisconsin state line. The field trip occurred seven years earlier. After a year's leave of absence, Maday was subsequently charged and convicted in 1994 on three felony counts of sexual assault and for intimidating a victim.

He was defrocked by the archdiocese in 2007. Maday served his 20-year sentence in its entirety in a Wisconsin prison, where he was classified a "sexually violent person.” Due to his propensity to re-offend, Mayday lived out his final years under supervision in a transitional living facility for sex offenders in Oshkosh, Wis.

Maday was ordained to the priesthood in 1964 when he was 26. Throughout his ministry, Maday was dogged by allegations of sexual abuse against children. Letters from church leaders showed him being passed from parish to parish, where he spent much of his time involving himself in youth oriented activities. From 1064 to 1993, he was assigned to St. John of God and St. Leo in Chicago; St Louis de Montfort in Oak Lawn; Our Lady of the Ridge in Chicago Ridge; and St. Jude the Apostle in South Holland. Maday also served stints in Catholic Scouting and the Archdiocese Council on Youth.

The ex-priest earned a reputation among the kids at the parishes where he served as someone to be avoided. Charming parents, Maday could just as quickly turn mean and intimating against children.

Robert Mergenthaler, now 49, was an altar boy under Maday’s charge at Our Lady of the Ridge in Chicago Ridge. He narrowly escaped becoming a victim of Maday’s when the priest grabbed him in a local motel swimming pool. He never told his parents.

After the pool encounter, Mergenthaler became openly hostile against the priest. Mergenthaler resigned from being an altar boy in disgust when he witnessed Maday in a backyard pool with his arms wrapped around a young boy from the parish.

"Maday was a monster," Mergenthaler told Patch in 2019. "It makes me angry to think of how many lives and families he destroyed or hurt, and how he used the church for his own sexual fantasy."