Father John Francis Stein
Archdiocese of Denver
Ordained: Unknown
Laicized: Unknown
Died: 2001
Assigned as follows:
- 1944-1945: St. Vincent de Paul (Denver, CO)
- 1950: Absent on Sick Leave
- 1946: Unknown
- 1951-1952: St. John the Evangelist (Loveland, CO)
- 1947: Absent on Sick Leave
- 1953-1958: St. Catherine of Siena's (Iliff, CO)
- 1948: Unknown
- 1959-2000: Unknown
- 1949: Sacred Heart (Cheyenne Wells, CO)
Summary of Sexual Abuse Allegations against Father John Francis Stein:
Father John Francis Stein served in multiple parishes in the Archdiocese of Denver. According to media reports, one man says Father John Francis Stein sexually abused him hundreds of times over a 3-year period in the 1950s at St. Catherine of Siena parish in the plains town of Iliff. The victim says that the abuse began in 1953 when he was only 10 years old.
Stein took the victim and others on many overnight trips and told the boy "what a really special kid" he was. The priest gave the 10-year-old victim alcohol and cigarettes and let him drive the priest's new car. The abuse began with back rubs and turned to molestation over time.
When the victim initially complained to the Archdiocese of Denver in 1991, he was initially told there were no records of a Father Stein. When he persisted, they eventually said that he had been laicized and could not do anything to help the victim.
After 5 years of back and forth with the church, the victim eventually settled a claim in 1996 with a very strict confidentiality agreement.
In the spring of 1956, it was rumored that Father Stein got caught trying to lure a junior-high girl into his car. The police took him to the station not knowing they were taking a priest in for questioning, because he did not have on the black suit and Roman collar. After questioning Father Stein and realizing they had the priest from Iliff, the police called Father Kane, the pastor at St. Anthony's in Sterling, the parish a few blocks away from the police station. Father Kane reportedly went to the station, collected Stein, and the matter was squashed.
In October 2018, the Colorado Attorney General released a detailed report of a special investigation into the handling of child sexual abuse allegations by Colorado's three Catholic dioceses. They identified three documented complaints of abuse in Stein's personnel file. Stein was actually criminally prosecuted for his abuse of two of the men. All three victims knew Stein from St. Catherine of Siena.
Stein died in Colorado in 2001.
Horowitz Law is a law firm representing victims and survivors of sexual abuse by Catholic priests and other clergy in the Archdiocese of Denver in Colorado. If you need a lawyer because you were sexually abused by a priest in Colorado, contact our office today. Although many years have passed, those abused by Catholic clergy in the Archdiocese of Denver now have legal options, but filing deadlines will apply so do not delay in reaching out to us. Our lawyers have decades of experience representing survivors of clergy sexual abuse in Colorado and nationwide. We can help.
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