[To see the entire list of accused bishops, click here.]
Bishop of Springfield MA bishop 1950-1977 (see Weldon’s complete assignment history). Resigned 1977 at age 72, reportedly for reasons of health. Died in 1982.
Accused of sexually abusing at least three minors. In 2019, a retired judge hired by the diocese to investigate its response to a Weldon victim found the victim’s devastating account of abuse by Weldon to be “unequivocally credible.”
BACKGROUND. First public allegation occurred in March 2005 civil complaint. Accused of three incidents of sexual assault of boy 1950-1956, when boy was ages 10-16. Alleged incidents took place at St. Michael’s Cathedral. In addition to watching the child being raped by another priest, Weldon allegedly fondled the child’s genitals, orally copulated and anally penetrated him, and forced the child to orally copulate him. Victim also alleged rape and sexual assault by six other clergy of the Springfield MA and Worcester dioceses, including his uncle, Msgr. Raymond J. Page, and then-Springfield priest Timothy J. Harrington, bishop of Worcester 1983-1994. In 2005, victim was in a Texas prison serving a 60-year sentence for murder. Although his lawyer said he had passed two polygraph tests, his allegations were deemed not credible by both the Springfield and Worcester bishops, and his brother denounced him as a “con man.” Victim voluntarily dismissed the case in September 2012. Book released 2018 revisited TX victim’s story and also accused Weldon of cutting deal with local DA in 1970s to not pursue murder charges against serial pedophile Fr. Richard Lavigne, suspected killer of altar boy Danny Croteau.
In late May 2019, newspaper reported that diocesan review board had privately informed another victim in September 2018 that it deemed credible his allegations of child sexual abuse by Weldon and two other Springfield priests, Edward Authier and Clarence Forand. The accuser had first met with diocesan representatives in December 2014, and on 6/13/2018, he met with the entire review board. He said he had been sexually assaulted by Weldon, Authier and Forand beginning at age 9 or 10 in the early 1960s. In early June 2019, the review board chair and diocese publicly denied that the man had accused Weldon. More publicity ensued, and the victim met with Bishop Rozanski. Diocese then acknowledged that it had deemed not credible two prior allegations against Weldon: by the TX victim, and by another man, who notified the diocese in 2016 while serving time in a MA prison.
In July 2019, diocese announced an internal probe of its response to the victim whom the review board had met in 2018. On 6/24/2020, the diocese published a report prepared by the lead investigator, retired judge Peter Velis. Velis said he found the 2018 complainant’s allegations against Weldon to be “unequivocally credible.” According to one of the accounts quoted in the report (see page 44), the victim recalled Weldon dragging him down a hallway and into a room. While the victim cried and struggled, other priests and boys stripped him naked, covered his head, and pushed him onto a bed, where he was gang-raped. Velis said the diocese’s process of receiving, investigating and assessing the victim’s allegations had been “greatly flawed.” Diocesan personnel who were mandatory reporters had failed to notify law enforcement, and a written summary of the longtime diocesan investigator’s April 2019 interview of the victim had been ‘inexplicably modified and manipulated’ before being given to the review board.
On 1/28/2021, the victim who was the focus of the Velis report filed a lawsuit against the Springfield diocese, Rozanski, and various diocesan officials, citing their deliberate cover-up of his credible claims.