Fr. January Padlo

Named publicly as credibly accused on the Our Lady of Guadalupe Province Franciscans’ list as of 1/2024. Member of the Assumption Province. (Placing Padlo for now in the Milwaukee archdiocese, where the Province is based.) Worked in Cedar Lake IN, Toledo OH, Canton MA, Saginaw MI, Grand Rapids MI, Perrysburg OH. Died in 1976, age 60. Included in the MI Attorney General’s 12/15/2025 Diocese of Grand Rapids Report. A woman told the Diocese of Kalamazoo in 1998 that when she was a fourth-grader at St. Margaret Parish School (then part of the Grand Rapids diocese) in 1961-1962, Padlo put his hand up her blouse. In 2003 a man reported to the police that he was sexually abused by Padlo as a child in the early 1960, when Padlo was assigned to St. Michael’s in Muskegon. He said one of his siblings rememberd Padlo trying to kiss one of the girls. Another woman alleged that Padlo molested little girls at St. Mary’s in Lowell MI. She said that he would invite girls as young as 7 or 8 to help clean the rectory, then put his hands up their dresses. In 2019 another woman told the Attorney General’s office that when she was a St. Margaret’s student in the late 1950s-early 1960s, ages 10-12, she was molested by Padlo. In 202 a woman reported that Padlo would group her and other children when she was ages 8-12, and that he once digitally penetrated her.