Father Robert Hermley
Diocese of Trenton
Ordained: 1955
Died: 2009
Assigned as follows:
- 1955: De Sales Hall (Washington, DC)
- 1956: St. Francis de Sales (Toledo, OH)
- 1958-1965: Father Judge High School for Boys (Philadelphia, PA)
- 1966: Mission House of the Oblates of St. Francis De Sales (Toledo, OH)
- 1967-1978: Father Judge High School for Boys (Philadelphia, PA)
- 1979-1980: Our Lady of Perpetual Help (Seaside Heights, NJ)
- 1981-1982: Padua Academy Residence (Wilmington, DE)
- 1983-1988: Our Lady of Good Counsel Church (Vienna, VA)
- 1990-1991: Our Lady of Good Counsel Church (Vienna, VA)
- 1992: St. Mary (Fredericksburg, VA)
- 1993-2000: Seton Home Study
- 2001: Little Sisters of the Poor (Newark, NJ)
- 2003-2006: Oblates of St. Francis De Sales Retirement and Retreat Center (Childs, MD)
- 2007-2008: Unknown
Summary of Abuse Allegations against Father Robert Hermley:
Fr. Robert Hermley was a priest of Oblates of St. Francis De Sales religious order. According to media reports, in June 1982, he was convicted in Pennsylvania of indecent assault of two minor boys age 13 and 14 while on assignment at Padua Academy in Wilmington, Delaware. He was arrested for watching a pornographic film with the boys in a parked car at a drive-in theater. Nineteen pornographic magazines were confiscated from his car. Hermley was sentenced to three years probation. Johns Hopkins University physicians examined Hermley and determined he did not need help. In December of the same year, he was reinstated to ministry in Vienna, Virginia.
In May 1987, a woman reported to the Oblates that Hermley sexually abused her son when he was 10 or 11-years old in the early 1980s while serving at Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Seaside Heights, New Jersey. Local authorities were not contacted and the allegation was handled by the Oblates.
In September 2003, Hermley was accused of sexually abusing a 13-year-old boy while on assignment at Father Judge High School for Boys, in Philadelphia between 1976 and 1980. This time, the DA’s Office and law enforcement were contacted.
In August 2011, his name was released as part of the Oblates’ settlement of $24.8 million reached with 40 plaintiffs.
Hermley retired in 2003. He was named in the Philadelphia Grand Jury report released in 2005. He died in August 2009.
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