Hospital has ousted Catholic priest
A hospital now says that a controversial Catholic priest who had been a chaplain there is being removed. In an email yesterday, an official with Central DuPage Hospital in Winfield disclosed that Fr. Thomas Corbino has been ousted.
Corbino has been accused of inappropriate behavior with youngsters.
On Tuesday, holding signs and childhood photos at a sidewalk news conference, leaders of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, urged hospital officials to fire Corbino.
They also urged
--Joliet Catholic officials to aggressively seek out others who may have experienced inappropriate contact with the cleric, and
--urge anyone who may have seen, suspected, or suffered clergy sex crimes – by Corbino or any other current of former Joliet church official- report to the police immediately.
SNAP recently obtained documents that show concern about Corbino’s behavior while he was worked at St. Pius X church in Lombard, IL. (He left there last year.) The records include an email from a former altar boy addressed to Corbino that alleges sexual abuse, and a statement from an investigator relating to a Will County State’s Attorney Investigative Report into sex abuse allegations against Corbino.
In an email to SNAP president Barbara Blaine, Christopher N. King wrote “As of yesterday afternoon, Fr. Thomas Corbino is no longer a volunteer Chaplin at Central DuPage Hospital. Thank you again for bringing these concerns to our attention.” King is a public relations manager for Cadence Health (phone 630.933.5117, cell 630.776.5373, [email protected]).
“We’re glad Corbino’s been removed but patients, parishioners and the public are still owed some straight answers about this troubling situation,” said SNAP president Barbara Blaine. “Did Joliet Catholic officials tell the hospital about Corbino’s disturbing past? What are both institutions doing to prevent such recklessness in the future and seek out anyone who may have been hurt by Corbino?”
Earlier this week, the Joliet Catholic diocese website, listed Corbino as working at both Central DuPage Hospital, and also working at St Mary Parish in West Chicago. SNAP believes that the allegations against Fr. Corbino are serious enough that he should be removed from both posts because they put him in a position of authority with opportunities to abuse children and vulnerable adults.
Winter Appeal 2023
To our friends,
2023 has been a long year with many ups and downs for us all. As we close out the year, we at SNAP hope that you are feeling like you are on your way to being healthy, fulfilled, and happy. This past year has brought both successes and challenges. Thanks to the support you have shown in the past, we’ve been able to celebrate the good days and weather the stormy ones. Now, we are once again asking for your support as we work to support survivors new and old as we ‘Move SNAP Forward.’
At SNAP we are proud to have hosted a very well-attended conference in August 2023. This event allowed us to gather friends, survivors, advocates, and allies for a weekend of camaraderie and connection. We were so happy to be able to welcome many first-time attendees to gather in person and are already looking forward to the next conference.
To strengthen our movement for justice, healing, and prevention, SNAP will be expanding our peer support and providing more volunteer opportunities in the coming year. Through this great work, we are ensuring survivor voices are represented as we work for significant change that will benefit children and survivors.
Right now, survivors worldwide are getting the help they need from SNAP, and more and more reach out to us daily, but we need your help to keep those programs going and get our volunteers the training they need to thrive.
Your tax-deductible gift to SNAP can help offset the cost of our important mission. If you are not in a position to contribute, you can still support us by sharing this letter with those who can. As we continue to fight for survivors across the globe, your donation or sharing the great work SNAP does will help us continue our work to protect the vulnerable, heal the wounded, and prevent abuse.
Your donation ensures SNAP will be there for those who need us more than ever!
Warmly,
Michael W. McDonnell, C.P.S.
Interim Executive Director
Showing 1 comment
Dear Mr. Clohessy and Mrs. Blaine,
I commend all of you and send you, an albeit mitigated “Congratulations”, in your efforts to have Fr.Thomas Corbino removed from his position as volunteer chaplain at Central DuPage Hospital in Winfield.
I say mitigated, because as you have detailed, since leaving St. Pius X apparently Fr.Thomas Corbino is also currently working at St. Mary Parish in West Chicago. And, I am sorry that Central DuPage Hospital did not report Mr. Corbino to the police. While ousting/removing him from a position of dangerous proximity to children and vulnerable adults is laudable, isn’t it the same as the church paying priests to be laicized, rather than reporting their actions to the police?
From what I have read in a variety of sources on the subject of active pedophiles, it seems that if left unarrested and their actions uncontested in our judicial system; if simply fired, ousted and told to leave, they seemingly willingly do so and just go somewhere else, often changing their name(s), so as to go undetected again for as long as possible. We have seen this happen with not only catholic priests and laity, here in California, but also with teachers in our public schools as of recent note.
I’m reminded of instances when other “professionals’, e.g. doctors, or lawyers have been found and convicted of being criminally negligent or incompetent in other ways, and thus have been barred from practicing in one state, but because there isn’t a federal law that says additionally, that they cannot then practice in any other state, they often just move to another state and begin another corrupt practice.
I believe not only must these pedophile priests and laity be reported to secular police, but that we all in this country, must work towards the achievement of federal laws that will insure consistency and appropriate action whenever and wherever a pedophile is found to be committing sexual assault crimes, whether it is anywhere, including a catholic church, a hospital and catholic schools, and on the internet, in any and all of our 50 United States of America. Our country has the governmental “framework” to do just such a thing, and should do so, immediately, for the protection of all of children and surviving victims and vulnerable adults.
Thank you, Mr. Clohessy and Mrs. Blaine for your ongoing efforts. I hope that not only will you be able to continue working at the grass roots level of squelching this “plague”, but I also hope and pray that you will continue to become being instrumental and successful in dealing with not only, our own federal government to provide and establish pertinent, timely and good new federal legislation with regards to this specific issue. I also hope and pray that you are successful in dealing with matters already in the works at the Hague at the ICC in dealing with the Vatican and the global, Catholic church.
I hope and pray all of this, because we, none of us who are decent law abiding and Christian adults can knowingly accede to continuous heinous crimes against humanity being committed by known pedophiles in the church whether they are catholic priests or laity. These crimes must be stopped in our generation. They must be stopped in our lifetime! The church has NO EXCUSE to continue to turn a “blind eye”, nor we any excuse to continue to let them do so. In my opinion, the new pope Francis and all those in the hierarchy beneath him MUST BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE AND BE REMINDED OVER AND OVER, AGAIN, and AGAIN OF THE GOSPEL FOUND IN: MATTHEW 18:6, MARK 9:41 AND LUKE 17:2. Better that they should be less afraid of “scandal” in the church, and more comprehending of the Holy Gospel, today. MATTHEW 18:6, MARK 9:41 AND LUKE 17:2.
With gratitude and sincerity,
Lani Halter