Father Leonard Thomas Walsh
Ordained: 1926
Died: 1954
Assigned as follows:
- 1927-1927 St. Bonaventure's Monastery and Ecclesiastical Seminary (Allegany, NY)
- 1927-1934 St. Bonaventure's Franciscan Monastery (Paterson, NJ)
- 1935 St. Joseph's (East Rutherford, NJ)
- 1935-1944 Commissariat of the Holy Land (Franciscan Monastery); Mt. St. Sepulchre (Washington, DC)
- 1945-1947 St. Francis of Assisi (New York, NY); St. Basil's Seminary (Stamford, CT)
- 1948 St. Bonaventure College and Seminary (Allegany, NY)
- 1948-1950 St. Anthony's Monastery (Franciscan Fathers) (Butler, NJ)
- 1950-1954 St. Francis' Friary (Brookline, MA)
Summary of Abuse Allegations against Leonard Thomas Walsh:
Father Leonard Thomas Walsh was ordained a Franciscan Friars priest in 1926, who served in the Archdiocese of Newark. He also served in multiple parishes throughout his career in New York, Washington, DC, Connecticut and Massachusetts.
According to media reports, in April 2012, the Franciscans settled at least one claim of child sexual abuse against him for an unspecified six-figure sum. Father Walsh was accused of sexually abusing a 9-year-old Massachusetts boy for four months at St. Francis Friary in Brookline, MA in 1953. The alleged victim said he went to confession at the friary because he wanted to get out of playing piano on Saturdays. He said the abuse began on the second visit, and continued until he got the nerve to stop going.
In October 2021, the Holy Name Province published a list of Franciscan friars with substantiated child sexual abuse and misconduct claims following a review of its files by an advisory firm. Leonard Thomas Walsh was one of 23 the friars named.
He died in 1954.
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