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Rev. Thomas F. Dempsey

Ordained: 1955

Start Stop Assignment Town/Accusations State Position Notes

1955

La Crosse Bishop was John Patrick Treacy (1948-1964)

1958 St. Thomas More La Crosse WI

2/2

Pastor was Rev. Thomas E. Mullen.

Parish had a school with 550-600 students.
1958 1963 St. Paul's Bloomer WI

2/2

Pastor was Rev. Ralph J. Geissler.

Parish had a school with 305-361 students.
1961 1963 St. Jude's New Auburn WI

1/1

Administrator

St. Jude's was a mission church.
1963 1964 St. Wenceslaus La Crosse WI

2/2

Pastor was Rev. Alfred F. Hebert.

Parish had a school with 36 students.

1964

Frederick William Freking replaced Treacy as La Crosse Bishop (1964-1983)

1965 Holy Trinity La Crosse WI

2/3

Pastor was Msgr. V.J. Plecity. Third priest, Rev. Joseph Martinson, was in residence.

Parish had a school with 516 students.

early 1965   St. Wenceslaus Eastman WI Temporary Administrator  
June 1965   St. Philip's Soldiers Grove WI Pastor  
June 1965   St. Martin's Boaz WI   St. Martin's was a mission church.
Feb. 1966 April 1966 St. Mary's Bangor WI

Temporary Administrator

Pastor was Rev. Louis J. Paquette.

 
Late Spring and Summer 1966   St. Patrick's Mauston WI Assistant Pastor  
Late Spring and Summer 1966   Madonna High School Mauston WI Temporary teaching duties.  
Fall 1966   St. Philip's Rudolph WI Assistant Pastor  
Dec. 1966 1968 Sacred Heart Hospital Eau Claire WI Chaplain  
Dec. 1966 1968 Northern Colony and Training School Chippewa Falls WI Chaplain This was a state institution for the mentally retarded.
1968 1970 St. Charles Genoa WI 1/1 Parish had a school with 111 students.
1968 Sept. 1969 Aquinas High School La Crosse WI Teacher  

1970

Cardinal Richard James Cushing was replaced in Sept. 1970 as archbishop of Boston by Humberto Sousa Medeiros (1970-1983)

 

1972 St. Michael's Hudson MA

3/4, 3/5

Pastor was Rev. Llewellyn D. Chadbourne. Other priests were Revs. Anthony Kneizys, Joseph T. Rothwell and Antonio S. Madeiros.

Parish had an elementary school with roughly 400 students and high school with more than 300 students.

Dempsey is indexed in the Official Catholic Directories as "absent on leave", but cited in the LaCrosse diocesan pages as "on duty outside diocese".

1972 1975 St. Clare Braintree MA

3/3, 2/2

From 1972-1974, pastor was Rev. John E. Connor and second priest was Rev. Richard E. McQuade. Dempsey worked under pastor Rev. Paul A. Gallivan 1974-1975.

 

 

 

McQuade was accused in the 1990s of sexual abuse. (Herald wire services, carried in Boston Herald
February 25, 2003)

1975 1978 St. Anthony Cohasset MA

2/2

Dempsey worked under pastor Rev. Joseph T. Brennan and then pastor Rev. John J. Keohane, who arrived in 1977.

Dempsey was exardinated from the La Crosse diocese in either 1975 or 1976 and incardinated into the Boston archdiocese in either 1976 or 1977.

1978

Bernard Francis Law replaced Medeiros as archbishop of Boston (1984-2002)

1985 Sacred Heart Weymouth MA

4/4, 3/4

Other priests included Revs. Rickard J. O'Donovan, pastor, Brian M. Flatley, Paul R.E. Francis, William P. Joyce, and John J. Stagnaro.

Parish had an elementary school with 473 students (in 1978) and a high school wtih 362 students (in 1978).
1985 1986 St. Stephen Framingham MA Pastor was Rev. James F. Lanergan. Other priests were Rev. Kevin M. McGrade and, in residence, Revs. G. Michael Scully, c.s.c., and Frederick LaBrecque, ss.cc.  
1986 1987 ? ? ?  

Dempsey's name does not appear in the 1987 Directory.

1987 1989 Sacred Heart Weymouth MA

4/4

Pastor was Rev. Paul V. MacDonald. Other priests were Revs. David P. Callahan and William P. Joyce.

 
1989 1998 Retired

Goffstown

• Pleaded guilty in 1997 to having abused during his time in La Crosse, WI. (USA Today, November 11, 2002) Dempsey had been accused of sexually abusing five Wisconsin altar boys. (Newsday.com
February 13, 2004)

NH  

The Directory index for 1992-1993 shows Dempsey's phone number to be that of Our Lady of the Assumption Church in Chelsea, MA. Documents from Dempsey's personnel file suggest he was living in Medway, MA, not Goffstown, for some of this period.

Dempsey died June 3, 1998.


Sources: Official Catholic Directory (New York: Kenedy & Sons, 1966-1998); Dempsey's personnel file, released by the Boston archdiocese in 2002.

Priests in a Parish: We use the following convention to show a priest's place among the clergy of a parish: 1/2 means that he is the first priest listed in the Official Catholic Directory (usually the pastor) and that there is a total of two priests at the parish. The shorthand 3/4 means that the priest is listed third on a four-priest roster. See our sample page from the Directory.

Note: The Official Catholic Directory aims to report the whereabouts of Catholic priests in the United States on January 1 of the Directory's publication year. Our working assumption is that a priest listed in the Directory for a given year was at the same assignment for part of the previous year as well. However, Kenedy & Sons will sometimes accept updates well into the year of publication. Diocesan clergy records are rarely available to correct this information. The Directory is also sometimes misleading or wrong. We have tried to create an accurate assignment record, given the source materials and their limitations. Assignment records are a work in progress and we are always improving the records that we post. Please email us with new information and corrections.

 
 

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