Father Joseph Reade
Diocese of Pueblo
Ordained: 1954
Died: 1990
Assigned as follows:
- 1955: St. Patrick’s (Pueblo, CO)
- 1956: St. Patrick’s (La Junta, CO)
- 1957-1958: Shrine of St. Therese (Pueblo, CO)
- 1959-1963: St. Patrick’s (Pueblo, CO)
- 1964: St. Rose of Lima (Buena Vista, CO)
- 1965: Sacred Heart Cathedral (Pueblo, CO)
- 1966-1971: St. Mary’s Hospital (Grand Junction, CO)
- 1972-1973: On Duty Outside the Diocese (Halifax, N.S.)
- 1974: Newman Center of Southern Colorado State College, (Pueblo, CO)
- 1975-1980: Parkview Episcopal Hospital (Pueblo, CO)
- 1980: St. Mary (Pueblo, CO)
- 1981-1983: Retired St. Peter the Apostle Church (Provincetown, MA)
- 1984-1985: Retired (Pueblo, CO)
- 1986: Retired (Pueblo, CO)
- 1987-1988: Retired (Pueblo, CO)
- 1968-1971: Colo. Veterans’ Administration Hospital (Grand Junction, CO)
- 1989-1990: Retired (Pueblo, CO)
Summary of Sexual Abuse Allegations against Fr. Joseph Reade:
Fr. Joseph Reade was ordained a priest in 1954, and served in multiple parishes in the Diocese of Pueblo. According to media reports, in October 2019, 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. For the first time, Fr. Joseph Reade was publicly identified as a priest with multiple documented reports of sexual abuse.
According to the documents reviewed by the investigators, Reade is the subject of two documented allegations of abuse.
Victim #1 said that he was sexually abused by Reade from 1969 to 1971, starting when he was 10. Reade was assigned to the VA Hospital and St. Mary’s Hospital in Grand Junction (as a chaplain) at the time of the abuse. The matter was later settled with the Diocese of Pueblo’s insurance company for an undisclosed amount.
Victim #2 reported that he was sexually abused by Reade at a social gathering in 1986. At the time, the victim was 11 years old. Reade was a retired priest in limited ministry at the time of the abuse.
Reade’s faculties were temporarily suspended when Victim #2’s allegation was reported, but they were reinstated when Reade denied the abuse. Unless the accused priest admitted the allegations, the Diocese of Pueblo protocols required the Diocese to find that the allegation was “unsubstantiated” and return the priest to ministry. The burden was on the victim to prove that the abuse happened, which required an admission or an independent witness to the actual abuse.
Reade died in 1990.
Horowitz Law is a law firm representing victims and survivors of sexual abuse by Catholic priests and other clergy in the Diocese of Pueblo 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 Diocese of Pueblo 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.
Contact us at 888-283-9922 or [email protected] to discuss your options today.