NEW YORK
BishopAccountability.org
Summary of Case: John “Jack” J. O’Keefe was ordained for the Archdiocese of New York in 1972. He went on to assist in three Bronx parishes and, in 1977, he joined the faculty of Cardinal Hayes High School. In the early 1990s, after over 25 years years as a teacher and guidance counselor, O’Keefe left Hayes to assume the role of president of Archbishop Stepinac High in White Plains. In 1995 he was elevated to Monsignor status. O’Keefe moved on from Stepinac High in 2004 to pastor St. Margaret’s parish in Pearl River.
In December 2015 O’Keefe was removed from St. Margaret’s and suspended from active ministry after he was accused in a lawsuit of having sexually abused a Hayes High School student in the early 1980s. The abuse was said to have occurred on two occasions – in a Virginia hotel during a school trip to Washington D.C., and during a weekend leadership training program at the Irish Christian Brothers’ retreat house in Esopus, New York. District Attorneys in Virginia and New York deemed the allegations ‘credible.’ O’Keefe denied them. He was reportedly living in a supervised setting for evaluation and risk assessment after his suspension. In September 2016 O’Keefe was permanently removed from ministry; two other male accusers had come forward by then with credible allegations.
Ordained: 1972
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