Father John Huels
Diocese of Metuchen
Ordained: 1976
Removed: N/A
Assigned as follows:
- 1977-1979 St. Joseph (Carteret, NJ)
- 1980 Unknown
- 1981-1982 Divine Word College (Washington, D.C.)
- 1983-1989 St. Philip Priory (Chicago, IL)
- 1990-1992 St. Philip Priory (Chicago, IL); The Catholic Theological Union at Chicago (Chicago, IL)
- 1993 St. Philip Priory (Chicago, IL); Servite Provincial Office (Chicago, IL)
- 1994 Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Chicago, IL); Servite Friars (Eastern Province (Chicago, IL); Assumption Priori (Chicago, IL)
- 1995 The Catholic Theological Union at Chicago (Chicago, IL); Servite Friars (Eastern Province, Chicago, IL); Monastery of Our Lady of Sorrows (Chicago, IL)
- 1996 Servite Friars (Eastern Province, Chicago, IL); Monastery of Our Lady of Sorrows (Chicago, IL)
- 1997 Servite Friars (Eastern Province, Chicago, IL); Zululand (South Africa)
- 1998-1999 Servite Friars (Eastern Province, Chicago, IL); (Ottawa, Canada)
- 2000-2002 Order of Friar Servants of Mary (Servites) United States of America Province, Inc.); (Ottawa, Canada)
- 2003-2019 Unknown
Summary of Abuse Allegations against Father John Huels:
Father John Huels was ordained a priest of the Friars Servants of Mary (Servites) religious order in 1976 and served in the Diocese of Metuchen. He served in multiple parishes throughout his career. According to media reports, in 1994, he was accused of sexually abusing a 15-year old boy in New Jersey in the 1970s. He was an associate pastor at St. Joseph Parish in Carteret at the time. Father John Huels admitted the abuse. When a second victim came forward, he resigned as Order provincial, and left Chicago to teach in Africa for several years.
In 1997, he was hired by St. Paul University in Ottawa, Canada. In August 2002, after child sexual abuse allegations surfaced, he left St. Paul’s as a priest, professor and vice dean of canon law. He took “medical leave for the treatment of severe depression.”
Then-Ottawa Archbishop Marcel Gervais said in a statement that Father Huels had “announced his intention to leave the Servite order and seek laicization.” He claimed that the archdiocese had no knowledge of any “inappropriate behavior” in Father Huels’ background.
According to media reports, in September 2018, he was still a full professor of canon law at Saint Paul’s. He was removed from that position only after publicity the same month. His current whereabouts are unknown.
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