Father Nicholas Cudemo
Archdiocese of Philadelphia
Ordained: 1963
Placed on leave: 1996
Laicized: 2005
Suits filed: 1992, 2005, 2011
Died: Died: July 31, 2021 in Orlando, FL
Assigned as follows:
- 1963-1968 St. Stanislaus (Lansdale, PA)
- 1968 Our Lady of Angels (Philadelphia, PA0
- 1968-1969 Saint John Neumann High School (Philadelphia, PA)
- 1968-1969 St. Paul (Philadelphia, PA)
- 1969-1973 Archbishop Kennedy High School
- 1969 SS. Cosmas/Damian (Conshohocken, PA)
- 1969-1971 St. Helena (Center Square, PA)
- 1971-1977 St. Titus (Norristown, PA)
- 1973-1977 Cardinal Dougherty High School (Philadelphia, PA)
- 1977-1982 St. Mary Magdalen De Pazzi (Philadelphia, PA)
- 1982-1987 St. Irenaeus (Philadelphia, PA)
- 1987-1989 Epiphany (Philadelphia, PA)
- 1989-1991 King of Peace (Philadelphia, PA)
- 1991-1996 St. Callistus (Philadelphia, PA)
- 1992-1996 Administrative Leave
- 1996-2005 Retired, Archdiocese of Philadelphia
Summary of Allegations Against Father Nicholas Cudemo:
Father Nicholas Cudemo was ordained a priest in 1963 and served in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. He served in multiple parishes throughout his career. According to the Philadelphia 2005 Grand Jury Report, he raped an 11-year-old girl, molested a fifth grader in the confessional, invoked God to seduce and shame his victims, and maintained sexually abusive relationships simultaneously with several girls from the Catholic school where he was a teacher.
Father Cudemo has been accused of abuse of between 11-16 young girls in 1960s and 1970s. According to the report, his own family sued him for molesting a cousin. It was only after victims threatened to name the Cardinal and the Archdiocese of Philadelphia in a lawsuit was Father Cudemo removed from his pastorate.
A list of some of the victims identified in evidence before the Grand Jury makes clear both Father Cudemo’s unrelenting depravity and the extent of Church leaders’ knowledge when they kept reassigning the priest. This list includes only those girls who were the subject of formal complaints made to Archdiocesan managers. It does not include the names of girls that the Archdiocese of Philadelphia learned of either secondhand from the victims who came forward or from the priest himself.
The report also notes that Father Cudemo was named as a diagnosed pedophile in the secret 1994 memo from Wm. Lynn to Monsignor Molloy.
Father Cudemo was eventually laicized in 2005.
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