Rev. Thomas J. Naughton, s.j.- Assignment Record

Assignment Record – Rev. Thomas J. Naughton, s.j.

Summary of Case: Thomas J. Naughton was ordained a priest of the Detroit Province of the Society of Jesus in 1965. He went on to work in high schools, parishes and retreat houses across the South, as part of the Jesuit's New Orleans Province, with a two-year stint in St. Louis, MO and a year in Berkeley, CA. In the mid-1990s he relocated to southern California where he worked as a visiting priest in a a Mission Viejo parish. He was removed in April 2002 after a man reported to the Jesuits that Naughton sexually abused him in 1978 at Jesuit College Preparatory School in Dallas, TX, when Naughton was the school's president. Naughton, as it was reported in 2002, was removed from Dallas' Jesuit Prep. in 1979 after he attempted to grope a young faculty member in a locker room whirlpool and was seen in the same one-person tub with someone else. Naughton was recalled to the New Orleans Province after his 2002 removal, and at some point returned to southern California. He died in August 2012.

Ordained: 1965
Died: Aug. 6, 2012

Start	Stop	Parish/Assignment	Town/Accusations	State	Position	Notes
1965 Rockford bishop was Loras Thomas Lane (1956-1968).	1966	Bellarmine School of Theology	North Aurora	IL	student priest
1966 Cleveland bishop was Clarence George Issenmann (1966-1974).	1967	St. Stanislaus Novitiate	Cleveland	OH	Tertianship for the Detroit Province
1967 El Paso bishop was Sidney Matthew Metzger (1942-1978).	1968	Jesuit High School	El Paso	TX	Prefect of Discipline; English teacher	Jesuit High had 389 students, all male.
1968 St. Petersburg bishop was Charles Borromeo McLaughlin (1968-1978).	1970	Jesuit High School	Tampa	FL		Jesuit High had 504 students, all male.
1970 St. Louis archbishop was John Joseph Carberry (1968-1979).	1972	St. Louis University	St. Louis	MO
1972 New Orleans archbishop was Philip Matthew Hannan (1965-1988).	1973	Loyola University	New Orleans	LA
1973 Dallas bishop was Thomas Ambrose Tschoepe (1969-1990).	1979	Jesuit College Preparatory School	Dallas • Naughton was accused in 2002 of having sexually abused a Jesuit Prep. sophomore in 1978. • In 1979 it was reported to school officials that Naughton tried to grope a young faculty member in a locker-room whirlpool and was seen in the one-person whirlpool with someone else.	TX	President	Jesuit Prep. had 666-711 students, all male. A former Jesuit Prep. Board member said in 2002 that Naughton "left in a hurry"' and the board member didn't know why.
1979 Oakland bishop was John Stephen Cummins (1977-2003).	1980	Jesuit School of Theology	Berkeley	CA
1980	1982					Naughton is not indexed in the 1981 or 1982 Directories.
1982 Baton Rouge bishop was Joseph Vincent Sullivan (1974-1982), followed by Stanley Joseph Ott (1983-2001).	1989	Manresa House of Retreats	Convent	LA	Director 1983-1989	Naughton is not indexed in the 1983 Directory, but he is listed as at Manresa House in the Baton Rouge diocesan pages.
1989 Galveston-Houston bishop was Joseph Anthony Fiorenza (1984-2006).	1990	Strake Jesuit College Preparatory School	Houston	TX	President	Strake had 556 students, all male.
1990 New Orleans archbishop was Francis Bible Schulte (1988-2002).	1991	Immaculate Conception	New Orleans	LA	5/5 In residence.
1991 Fort Worth bishop was Joseph Patrick Delaney (1981-2005).	1995	Monserrat Retreat House	Lake Dallas	TX	Director	Naughton is not indexed beyond the 1995 Directory.
1995 Orange bishop was Norman Francis McFarland (1986-1998), followed by Tod David Brown (1998-2012).	April 2002	St. Kilian's	Mission Viejo	CA	visiting priest	This assignment is per news reports. The Directories neither index nor list Naughton as at St. Kilian's. Naughton was removed from St. Kilian's in April 2002 after a man reported to officials at Jesuit Prep. in Dallas, TX that Naughton sexually abused him when the man was a Jesuit Prep. sophomore in 1978.
April 2002 Schulte was succeeded as New Orleans archbishop by Alfred Clifton Hughes (2002-2009), followed by Gregory Michael Aymond (2009-).			New Orleans	LA		Naughton was sent back to the New Orleans Province after his removal.
Orange diocese.	Aug. 2012		Laguna Woods	CA		Naughton died Aug. 6, 2012.

Sources: Official Catholic Directory (New York: P.J. Kenedy and Sons, 1966-2002)

• Mission Viejo Priest Removed on 1978 Claim, Orange County, Scandal: St. Kilian parishioners stunned at announcement of abuse investigation against Father Tom Naughton., by Jack Leonard, Los Angeles Times, April 14, 2002
• Another O.C. Priest Is Accused // Church - the Rev. Thomas J. Naughton, 68, Goes on Leave after a Charge of Abusing a Child More Than Two Decades Ago Surfaces, By Bill Rams and Valeria Godines, Orange County Register, April 15, 2002
• Ex-Jesuit President Removed, Naughton, Accused of Molesting Youth in '78, Was Priest in California, By Reese Dunklin, Dallas Morning News, April 16, 2002
• Jesuit Leader's Exit Was Sudden, Abuse Allegation a First for Former School Chief, Current President Says, By Brooks Egerton,
Dallas Morning News, April 17, 2002
• 3 More Ex-Jesuit Staffers Accused, Ex-Maintenance Official at School Denies Abuse; 2 Teachers Also Named, Dallas Morning News,
April 24, 2002
• Jesuit High Teacher Fired Amid Misconduct Claim, By Melanie Ave, St. Petersburg Times, April 24, 2002
• Priest with N.O. Ties Suspended, Texas Abuse Allegation Follows Him to Calif., Times-Picayune, April 24, 2002
• Jesuit High Ex-Teacher Accused of Sex Abuse, By Graham Brink, St. Petersburg Times [Florida], May 10, 2002
• The Accused, USA Today, November 11, 2002
• The History of El Paso Jesuit High School, by Jack Deeves, S.J., elpasojesuit.org, 2010
• findagrave.com

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 and 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.

This assignment record collates Naughton's career history as it is represented in the Official Catholic Directory with allegations as reported in the media. We make no representation regarding the truth of the allegation we report, and we remind our readers that the U.S. legal system presumes that a person accused of or charged with a crime is innocent until proven guilty. Similarly, individuals who may be defendants in civil actions are presumed not to be liable for such claims unless a plaintiff proves otherwise. Admissions of guilt or liability are not typically a part of civil or private settlements. For more information, see our posting policy.

This assignment record was last updated on April 14, 2014.