Assignment History– Rev. Richard J. Ahern, C.S.S.

WALTHAM (MA)
Bishopaccountability.org

Summary of Case: Richard J. Ahern was a priest of the Congregation of the Sacred Stigmata (Stigmatines), ordained in 1954. He was assigned to Stigmatine parishes in the in the Archdioceses of Boston and New York, and the Dioceses of Richmond, VA and Springfield, MA. Additionally, he was Director in the 1960s of Camp Elm Bank in Wellesley, MA. From 1985 until his death in 2001 Ahern resided at St. Joseph’s Hall, which was a retirement home for priests and brothers at the Stigmatine’s headquarters in Waltham, MA. He was Administrator of the residence from 1988 on. There are several unexplained gaps in Ahern’s assignment history.

The Stigmatines were aware of allegations of child sexual abuse against Ahern at least as early as 1979. Four men are known to have come forward, one alleging abuse as a sixth and seventh-grade altar boy in VA in the 1959-1961, and three others reporting that Ahern sexually abused them at Camp Elm Bank in Wellesley, MA in the 1960s. The boys were said to have been ages 11 to 15, and the abuse allegedly spanned the decade.

By 1988 Ahern’s ministry was restricted. He died in February 2001.

Born: April 12, 1927
Ordained: June 12, 1954
Died: February 1, 2001

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