Chicago Priest's Refusal to Leave Rectory Throws Catholic Church Into Chaos.

Cook County Sheriff Thomas Dart, left, escorts the Rev. Dan Mallette, center, back to the street as the Rev. Steve Jones offers assistance to Mallette at the Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip, Ill.

A Chicago parish is in turmoil because its beloved priest has balked at his impending removal from the Catholic Church rectory, while his incoming successor, who says he was attacked by a staff member, admits that he shares some of the blame for the disruption.
The Rev. Daniel Mallette, a civil rights and anti-poverty activist, has lived at St. Margaret of Scotland rectory since 1977, but the Chicago Archdiocese ordered him to move out earlier this year because it is in need of repair and is now considered unsafe for the frail but spry reverend. Mallette, 80, was brutally beaten on the church's property by robbers late last year; he recovered from the incident and soon returned to St. Margaret's.
It is part of established church governance in Chicago that a departing pastor lives off the premises for six months after the new pastor arrives, so he can get settled and establish his leadership. The deadline for Mallette to leave the church came and went Monday, and he has yet to vacate.
"I would love to stay where I'm at, and I thought when you became a pastor emeritus, this new pastor would come in and run the parish and I wouldn't interfere with anything," Mallette told ABC News affiliate WLS-TV.
Mallette said the cardinal previously told him that he would be able to reside at the rectory until he dies. But now, he says, the cardinal denies having told him that.