Father James F. Quinn
Diocese of Syracuse
Ordained: 1958
Removed: 2013
Assigned as follows:
- >1959 St. Patrick (Syracuse, NY)
- >1960 – 1971 St. Agnes (Utica, NY)
- >1967 – 1971 St. John & St. Joseph Home CYO (Utica, NY)
- >1969 – 1971 Bethlehem Day Camp (Utica, NY)
- >1972 – 1975 St. Paul (Rome, NY)
- >1973 Oneida Co. Home (Rome, NY)
- >1976 – 1978 St. Therese of the Infant Jesus (Munnsville, NY)
- >1976 – 1978 New York State Agriculture and Technical College (Morrisville, NY)
- >1979 – 1988 St. Paul (Whitesboro, NY)
- >1989 – 1994 St. James (Syracuse, NY)
- >1995 – 2000 Most Holy Rosary (Syracuse, NY)
- >1996 – 2003 Special assignment
- >2001 – 2004 St. Ann (Manlius, NY)
- >2004 – 2005 Absent on leave
- >2005 Tommy Coyne Residence Dillon Hall, (Syracuse, NY)
- >2006 – 2007 St. Peter (Syracuse, NY)
- >2008 Our Lady of Pompeii (Syracuse, NY)
- >2009 – 2011 Sacred Heart (Cicero, NY)
Summary of Abuse Allegations Against Father James F. Quinn:
According to media reports, in May 2003, Father James F. Quinn was accused in a lawsuit of sexually abusing and exploiting a boy from 1963 to 1970. At the time, he was the assistant pastor of St. Agnes Church in Utica. The church also operated a grammar school, which the boy attended.
According to the alleged victim, the abuse started when he was 14 and occurred almost daily. He claimed Father Quinn would get him drunk and then abuse him. He said Father Quinn gave him money, jobs, a car and expensive trips to Hawaii and South America to silence him. When he tried to refuse Father Quinn’s sexual advances, the priest roughed him up and forced him to continue, according to the lawsuit.
Father Quinn denied the allegations. At the time of the accusation, he was director of the Office of Vocation Promotion, where his job was to recruit candidates for the priesthood. The Diocese of Syracuse placed him on leave pending an investigation.
In December 2004, the church cleared Father Quinn to return to ministry after finding insufficient evidence to substantiate the allegations against him. Church officials said they received no other allegations of sexual misconduct against him.
The suit was dismissed because the statute of limitations had expired. The man’s attorney fought to have the case reinstated. In July 2005, after denying leave in the 30-year-old alleged sexual abuse case, the court reversed itself and agreed to hear the appeal.
Father Quinn retired in good standing in 2012.
In 2013, another man accused Father Quinn of raping him in the rectory of St. Ann’s Church in Manlius during a rehearsal for his confirmation in 1989.
“He took me to a room in the rectory and raped me,” the man said. “I was frozen. I was disconnected from my body. I just wanted it to end. I remember I focused on a clock. It was 4:23 in the afternoon.”
Father Quinn died in 2013 at the age of 80. The Diocese of Syracuse was unable to determine whether the allegation was credible because Father Quinn had died a year earlier.
Father Quinn’s name appeared publicly on the Diocese of Syracuse’s list of clergy credibly accused of sexual abuse of minors, published in December 2018, after the Review Board determined that the allegations 2003 of abuse of a boy 1963-1970 were credible.
He was among 32 priests in the Diocese of Syracuse who were removed as part of the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People that was established in June 2002.
Another lawsuit was filed in February 2019.
Horowitz Law is a law firm representing victims and survivors of sexual abuse by Catholic priests and other clergy in the Diocese of Syracuse in New York. The Diocese of Syracuse filed for federal bankruptcy protection in June 2020. Anyone sexually abused by a priest or employee of the Diocese of Syracuse may be entitled to file a claim against the Diocese in these bankruptcy proceedings, but very strict filing deadlines apply. Most victims of abuse in the Diocese of Syracuse will never be able to take any legal action if they miss this bankruptcy filing deadline, so it is important that you contact us immediately to discuss your potential case. Our lawyers have decades of experience representing survivors of clergy sexual abuse in New York and nationwide. We can help.
Contact us at 888-283-9922 or [email protected] to discuss your options today.