SCHENECTADY (NY)
Daily Gazette
Sept. 24, 2019
By Zachary Matson
Frances P. Melfe, a former Catholic priest in Schenectady who allegedly lived with a woman and abused her children while still a priest, died Friday night. He was 91.
Melfe, who served as a priest in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany from 1954 until he resigned in 1979, ministered at the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Schenectady’s Bellevue neighborhood from 1971 to 1979. He also worked at churches in Gloversville, Troy, Hudson and Albany.
Melfe was removed from the priesthood in 2012 and has been on an Albany Diocese list of priests credibly accused of child abuse.
After the state opened the door last month to lawsuits that had not been filed before their statute of limitation ran out, a family of siblings filed a lawsuit accusing Melfe of secretly living with their mother and abusing them while they were children. Melfe is also accused of fathering one of the children.
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