NEW YORK
BishopAccountability.org
Summary of Case: Kenneth F. O’Connell was ordained for the Archdiocese of New York in 1956. He served as an assistant at parishes in Manhattan and Mt. Vernon before being named pastor in Larchmont in 1981. O’Connell was involved throughout his career with the Catholic Boy Scouts, locally and nationally; he was chaplain and chair of the National Catholic Committee on Scouting 1973-1975. He also held leadership positions for the Archdiocesan Catholic Youth Organizations, as assistant director 1973-1975, then director 1975-1978. In 1973 O’Connell founded a scouting camp called Camp Spes Mundi, in Hope Falls, NY. He died in 1984 at age 54.
In May 2017 O’Connell was accused publicly of having perpetrated sexual abuse against a boy scout in 1973. O’Connell’s accuser claimed that when he was 12-years-old, O’Connell raped him at Camp Spes Mundi. The former boy scout said that, after injuring his ribs while wrestling with fellow campers, he was prescribed muscle-relaxants by a doctor and told to sleep indoors. That was when he said O’Connell had him spend the night in his room to “keep an eye” on him, then forcefully sodomized him. He said O’Connell left camp the next day and he never saw him again.
O’Connell’s accuser received a financial settlement from the archdiocese in 2017 via its Independent Reconciliation and Compensation Program.
Ordained: 1956
Died: November 21, 1984
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