21 Accused in this Religious Order
- Passionist Historical Archives 1998
- JOHN DOE Nos 30 – 68 and MARY ROE Nos 6 – 8, v Roman Catholic Archbishop of Boston, CA 05-0006
- BishopAccountability Letter to Dr Mary Jane Doherty, Chairperson of the Archdiocese of Boston Review Board 07.27.11
- Boston Globe 07.28.11
- Boston Globe 11.20.11
- Archdiocese of Baltimore List 04.24.19
- MD Attorney General’s Report 04.05.23
- Boston Globe 01.18.03
- Boston Globe 11.20.11
- WBUR 03.28.16
- WBUR 03.28.16
- The Patch 03.28.16
- Boston Globe 03.28.16
- BishopAccountability 03.28.16
- Boston Globe 03.28.16
- Bostoncom 03.28.16
- Associated Press via Tribune-Review 01.06.20
- Boston Herald 01.06.20
- Boston Globe 01.06.20
- Associated Press 01.07.20
- MassLive 01.07.20
Br. Anthony Mimiaga
Professed vows in 1962. Worked in Cincinnati, OH as a cook for the order's community and in Sierra Madre, CA. Died in 1999. Accused in a lawsuit settled in 2025 of the sexual abuse of a girl, ages 7-12, on multiple occasions during 1974-1975 at Mater Dolorosa Retreat Centre in Sierra Madre, CA and in the hills behind the retreat center. The abuse allegedly included forced penetration and bestiality.
Assignments:
Sources:
Br. Joseph Stadtfeld
Made temporary vows 7/9/1944; final vows 7/9/1947. Accused of sexually abusing two sisters between 1958 and 1966. Died 8/23/2001. (Last name spelled as in personnel file; it is misspelled in his L.A. archdiocesan obituary.) The 2/17/2004 Archdiocesan Report notes one civil suit filed. Both sisters settled as part of a $660M settlement in 7/2007. Accused in a lawsuit settled in 2025 of sexually abusing a girl many times 1972-1981, when the girl was ages 5-14. The abuse allegedly occurred in and around the Mater Dolorasa Retreat Center in Sierra Madre CA.
Deacon James Griffith
Passionist deacon. Convicted in 1988 of abuse of a boy 1974-1977 at St. Raphael, starting when the boy was age 11. Sentenced to 60 days' jail and 5 years probation. Sued by the same victim in 1988; suit dismissed due to the statute of limitations. A 5/2002 lawsuit alleged abuse in the 1970s. As of 2002 Griffith was "long removed from public ministry" and lived at a Passionist residence in Chicago. Included on the Louisville archdiocese's list in 2/2019. Living in MI in 4/2021 under a safety plan. Added to the Detroit archdiocese's list in 4/2021.
Fr. Adrian Poletti
Named publicly as accused by the Baltimore Archdiocese on its list 4/24/2019. Allegation to the Archdiocese in 2006 of sexual abuse of a boy, about age 11 or 12, at Camp Gabriel in about 1956. The same accuser said he was also abused Sr. Theonella Flood, at St. Joseph Passionist Monastery School. The victim received a $38K settlement. In 1/2007 a woman reported sexual abuse by Poletti in the mid-1940s when she was age 14 or 15. Poletti died in 1980. Assigned to St. Joseph Monastery Church 1937-1942 and 1951-1959. Included in the 4/5/2023 MD Attorney General's Report.
Fr. Arthur Carrillo
The Passionists announced in a letter on 3/7/2019 that the Holy Cross Province had recently received an allegation that Carrillo sexually abused a female minor in the early 1970s. Removed from public ministry pending investigation. Carrillo was assigned to Mater Dolorosa Passionist Retreat Center in Sierra Madre 1970-1975 and 1987-1994.
Sources:
Fr. Benedict Mawn
Worked in the Archdioceses of Baltimore, Boston, Hartford and Dioceses of Buffalo, Scranton, Worcester and Manchester. Died in 1998. Accused in 2002 of abuse of a boy, ages 10-14, in Baltimore in the late 1940s or early 1950s. Mawn's accuser said that two other priests also sexually abused him. Assigned to St. Joseph Passionist Monastery in Baltimore 1955-1957 and 1960-1962. Accused in a 2005 lawsuit of abuse of a boy at St. Gabriel's in Brighton, MA in 1976. The suit involved multiple plaintiffs and named multiple priests as defendants. Attorney Carmen Durso said in 2011 that almost all claims were settled. On the Baltimore archdiocese's list 4/24/2019. Included in the 4/5/2023 MD Attorney General's Report.
Assignments:
Sources:
Fr. Conran Free
Named publicly as accused in 5/21 by Attorney Mitchell Garabedian. Free was the subject of a claim that was settled in 2021 in the low five figures. Allegedly sexually abused a boy, ages 13-14, multiple times during 1970-71, while assigned to St. Ann's Passionist Monastery in Scranton. Died in 11/23/83. Brother of accused Passionist priest Daniel Free.
Fr. Cuthbert Sullivan
Named publicly as accused in the 4/5/2023 MD Attorney General's Report. Report to the Archdiocese in 2002 that Cuthbert sexually abused a boy, age 13, in 1952 at St. Joseph's Monastery Parish in Baltimore. Sullivan was assigned at the time to the Monastery and Church of St. Michael's in Union City, NJ. Sullivan's accuser also said he was abused at St. Joseph's by Frs. Eugene Ambrose and Benedict Mawn. Sullivan died in 1999. Included in 12/2024 on the Archdiocese of Baltimore's list of accused.
Fr. Daniel A. Free
Named publicly as accused by the Baltimore archdiocese on its list 4/24/2019. Allegations to the archdiocese in 1998 and 2012, reported to law enforcement and the Passionists. Removed from ministry in 2000. Died 6/11/2016. Included in the 4/5/2023 MD Attorney General's Report, which shows that both victims were girls and both reported that the abuse involved torture and other men who were wearing masks, and that Free was not wearing a mask. One said she was abused in the mid-1950s at about age 5, and the other at age 13-14 in the mid-1960s.
Fr. Donald J. Keenan
Accused in 1998 of masturbating two boys, one age 13 and the other mentally challenged, in Keenan's family home in Malden in 1977. Also insisted that they masturbate him. Died in 1995. Omitted from the Boston Archdiocese's 2011 database.
Fr. Eugene Ambrose McGuire
Named publicly as credibly accused by the Baltimore archdiocese on its list 4/24/2019. Allegation received in 1993 of abuse in 1962-1966 of a girl, ages 7-11. The girl's sister later reported that she was also abuse by McGuire. His personnel file shows that other priests and a nun knew of the abuse. Another allegation in 2002 of abuse in the late 1940s or early 1950s of a boy, age 8. Report in 2019 of abuse abuse by McGuire of junior high school boy 1970-1972. McGuire died in 1984. Included in the 5/6/2023 MD Attorney General's Report.
Fr. Henry Xavier Vetter
Early priesthood was in AL, then preached retreats and missions throughout the Midwest. Was sent to the West Coast in 1950, learning Spanish and "moving among the little towns of N. CA and NV. Assigned to a Mater Dolorosa Monastery in Sierra Madre, CA, in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, 1953-1973. Started a non-profit in 1963, establishing and supporting orphanages and schools in Baja CA. Died in 1977 in a truck crash in Baja CA; four orphan boys, who survived, were with him. Had been living in Mexico at the Rancho Nazareth boys' orphanage. Would travel to his nonprofit's headquarters in Petaluma CA once a week. Called the 'Magic Priest,' per his obituary, because he did "magic tricks to win the hearts of children in remote villages." Suspected of child sexual abuse in Detroit MI, in the 1940s. Accused in 1993 of abuse in the early 1960s. Several other allegations later received of abuse in the 1960s and early 1970s. Per the 2004 L.A. Archdiocesan report, there were seven accusers, of abuse occurring 1953-1973. Named in at least one suit in 2003. Added to the KC-St Joseph list; one substantiated allegation of abuse in the diocese noted. Included on the Springfield-Cape Girardeau list of accused 4/13/2021.
Assignments:
Documents:
Sources:
Fr. James Randal Gillette
Personnel file released in 1/2003, which contained a 9/2002 letter accusing Gillette of the sexual assault of a boy at St. Gabriel's in Brighton in 1972. Worked in the U.S. dioceses/archdioceses of Newark, Boston, Pittsburgh, New York. Assigned 1978-1987 to St. Patrick's in Mexico City. Also worked in Honduras. Included on Attorney Garabedian's list 3/28/2016 of accused clerics named in civil claims resulting in settlements or arbitration awards. Civil suit filed in 2014, claiming abuse of a boy, ages 9-13. Settled. Gillette pleaded guilty under a plea deal 1/2/2020 to "unnatural acts" with a child under age 16, 1972-1975. Sentenced to five years' probation and GPS monitoring, to register as a sex offender, and to treatment. Two known victims.
Assignments:
Sources:
Fr. John Baptist Ormechea
"J.B." Removed from ministry in Louisville, KY in 12/2002 after allegations by four people of abuse in Chicago 1978-1981. Accused by a fifth person in a 2003 lawsuit of molesting him as a boy in Chicago in 1983. Per the lawsuit, the boy told his parents about the abuse in 1993 and they met with the Passionists' provincial, who said Ormechea had been removed in 1988 after another allegation. They said the provincial decided the boy was abused by a priest, but not Ormechea. Sent to Rome in 2003 to work in the Passionists' archives. Included on the Louisville archdiocese's list in 2/2019. In 3/2021 Ormechea remained in Rome, and was still a priest. Included in the 5/23/2023 IL Attorney General's Report, which notes five "reported survivors," of abuse 1963-1966 and in the late 1970s-early 1980s.
Fr. John Watts
"Caspar." Named publicly as accused by the Diocese of Sacramento on its list 4/30/2019. It notes four allegations received in 1994 of the sexual abuse in 1972 of boys under age 14. Worked at Christ the King Retreat Center in Citrus Heights. May have filled in at times in Maxwell and Corning parishes. Left the diocese in 1973.
Sources:
Fr. Jordan Loiselle
Named publicly as accused by the Diocese of Springfield MA on its list 6/2/2021. Worked in the diocese 1947-1949 and 1970-1996. Multiple credible allegations of the sexual abuse of minors, occurring in 1988. Died in 1996.
Fr. Jude Dowling
Named publicly as credibly accused by the Springfield MA Diocese on its list 6/2/2021. Worked in the diocese 1978-1993. Multiple allegations of abuse, occurring 1969-1975 and 1980-1985. Died 10/17/2001.
Fr. Julius Reiner
Named publicly as credibly accused by the Diocese of Scranton on its list in 10/2020. Died 9/26/1973.
Fr. Kent Pieper
Given name Paul Pieper. Named publicly as accused by the Louisville archdiocese on its list in 2/2019. (Name misspelled Piper.) Assignments included secretary to the provincial and Vice-Rector of the Passionist Preparatory Seminary in Warrenton, MO; Rector of the Passionist Seminary in Louisville; Pastor of St. Agnes in Louisville; associate at St. Margaret Mary in Winter Park, FL. Pieper died 9/10/1994.
Fr. Maurus Schenck
Accused in a lawsuit filed in 8/2020 of sexually abusing a child, ages 12-17, during 1962-1968, while assigned to St. Mary's in Dunkirk. Also accused of abusing a 13-year-old in 1965. Schenck died 5/20/1975.
Fr. Vernon Kelly
Also known as John. At least one claim was included in the Springfield MA diocese's 11/2008 $4.5M settlement with 59 plaintiffs. Added 6/2/2021 to the diocese's list. Was Vocations Director for the Passionists at their monastery in West Springfield 1961-1964. Noted to have sexually abused a minor in 1965. Laicized in 1967.