TUCSON (AZ)
BishopAccountability.org – Assignment Record
Summary of Case: A priest of the Tucson diocese, Robert Trupia was promoted twice during the sixteen years after the first complaint of child sexual abuse was made against him. Reports that Trupia was molesting boys were for years repeatedly dismissed by diocesan officials. Trupia held a number of chancery positions and was named “Monsignor”. He was awarded a scholarship to pursue a doctorate in Canon Law from Catholic University. He taught sex education and ran a “Come and See” program for high school boys considering the priesthood. Trupia is said to have sexually abused at least 30 boys, and was nicknamed “Chicken Hawk” by other priests of the diocese due to his reputation as a child predator. He was finally suspended in 1992 after the mother of an alleged victim appealed to Santa Fe’s Bishop Sanchez in a letter and sent a copy to Tucson’s Bishop Moreno. Trupia threatened to expose the sexual improprieties of high-ranking Tucson diocesan officials if he wasn’t allowed to retire on his own terms. The diocese later called Trupia a “notorious and serial sexual predator” and sought his laicization. He moved to Maryland and worked as a consultant for the Monterey, CA diocese; that contract was terminated in 2001, just after Trupia was arrested on charges of molesting children in AZ in the 1970s. He was jailed but released after one night due to the expiration of the statute of limitations. Although he fought it for twelve years, Trupia was laicized in 2004.
Ordained: 1973
Incardinated: Tucson
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