OHIO
BishopAccountability.org
Summary of Case: Thomas A. Kuhn was a priest of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, ordained in 1967. For over twenty years he worked at Elder High School as a teacher, vice principal and then principal. During that time he was assigned to a series of area parishes as an assistant and, for several years, pastored one. Kuhn left Elder in July 1988. The following year he began a twelve-year stint as pastor of Incarnation in Centerville, OH which is near Dayton and in the northern reaches of the archdiocese. He was also involved with nearby Alter High School as a teacher and sports team chaplain.
In the early 1990s Incarnation parents began to complain to the school principal that Kuhn was showing undue attention to their young sons, sending them to class late after mass and taking them out of class to his home. The principal confronted Kuhn, but the behavior continued. A former Alter High student said in 2002 that in 1994 she informed the archdiocese that a former student told her Kuhn had touched him in ways that made him feel uncomfortable. Reportedly, the archdiocese did nothing. In 1997 Alter’s principal reported Kuhn to the archdiocese and Children’s Services after a male student told two teachers that Kuhn had stuck his hand down the boy’s pants. Kuhn was allowed to remain in ministry until May 2002, when he was under investigation by the Sheriff’s Department for possible “misuse” of church computers. He had been on leave for a few months earlier in the year for treatment of alcoholism. Bishop Pilarczyk stated publicly that Kuhn was “guiltless,” leading to the objections of former students, parents and fellow priest, Rev. Lawrence Breslin. Kuhn was known to lavish boys with money and expensive gifts, and to provide them with alcohol. During November 2001-January 2002, he hosted four boys and a girl in his home, gave them alcohol and masturbated in front of at least one of them.
In October 2002 Kuhn was charged with one count of public indecency, six counts of furnishing alcohol to minors and four counts of allowing minors to possess or consume alcohol on his premises. He pleaded no contest in June 2004 in October 2002 was sentenced to five years’ probation and fined $10,500. In 2005 he violated the terms of his probation and was jailed for thirty days.
Kuhn was laicized in October 2014.
Ordained: 1967
Laicized: 2014
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