Fr. Henry B. “Hugh” O’Donnell

Ordained: 1949
Status: Accused

Died: 11/21/1982
Diocese: Diocese of Steubenville OH

Accused 12/8/2005 of sexually abusing a 13-year-old girl in 1950 in Washington DC. The girl’s mother allegedly discovered O’Donnell in the act of forcibly kissing her daughter as well as touching the girl’s breasts and genitals beneath her clothes. O’Donnell was was diocesan secretary or chancellor at the time. The kissing was allegedly repeated by then-Msgr. O’Donnell when the girl was age 18, and he is accused of verbally abusing her at age 27 in a sexual manner. He was then Steubenville’s vicar general. He died in 1982.


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