Father H. Cornell Bradley
Archdiocese of Philadelphia/Baltimore
Ordained: 1969
Removed: 2006
Assignment History:
- 1963-1965: Gonzaga College High School (Washington, DC)
- 1965-1966: De Nobili School (Dhanbad, India)
- 1970-1971: Georgetown University (Washington, DC)
- 1971-1972: Gonzaga College High School (Washington, DC)
- 1972-1976: Gonzaga College High School (Washington, DC) Residence: Holy Trinity Church (Washington, DC)
- 1976-1979: Gonzaga College High School (Washington, DC)
- 1979-1981: Jesuit Seminary and Mission Bureau (Baltimore, MD) & Jesuit Community of Loyola University Maryland (Baltimore, MD)
- 1981-1988: Jesuit Seminary and Mission Bureau (Baltimore, MD) Residence: Wheeler House Jesuit Community (Baltimore, MD)
- 1988-1989: Jesuit Community of St. Therese (Mooresville, NC)
- 1989-1993: St. Elizabeth of the Hill Country Church (Boone, NC)
- 1993-1994: Provincial Residence (Baltimore, MD)
- 1994-1999: St. Joseph’s University, Philadelphia (Philadelphia, PA)
- 1998: Jesuit Community of St. Therese (Mooresville, NC)
- 1999-2006: Jesuit Community at St. Joseph’s University (Merion Station, PA)
- 2006-2007: Jesuit Community of St. Isaac Jogues (Wernersville, PA)
Summary of Abuse Allegations Against Father Cornell Bradley:
Father Cornell Bradley was ordained a Jesuit priest in 1969 and served in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, Charlotte, and Baltimore. In 2019, Fr. Bradley was listed on the Archdiocese of Baltimore and the Diocese of Charlotte’s Credibly Accused of Sexual Abuse of Minors list. In April 2023, Maryland’s Attorney General released a report alleging 156 Catholic clergy members sexually abused at least 600 children over six decades. The report lists the names of the abusers, including Father Bradley.
According to media reports, in 1993, the Maryland Jesuit leadership became aware of allegations that Bradley sexually abused three individuals, including two 15-year-old boys, between 1968 and 1988. One of the three allegations was substantiated – that Bradley had a long-term, abusive sexual relationship with an adult woman. In response, Bradley was sent to a mandated residential psychiatric treatment program for several months by the Provincial of the Maryland Province of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits). “Health care” workers stated he was fit to return, and he returned to ministry in 1995 and was assigned to St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, where he worked until 2006 as a campus minister and chaplain for the basketball team. In 2006, Bradley was accused of sexual abuse with an adult male that took place during the 1980s; Bradley acknowledged that he committed the abuse. As a result of this and four other credible allegations involving minors and adults over the course of three decades, Father Bradley was again removed from the ministry.
By March 2007, five more people came forward, several with reports that Father Bradley had engaged in sexual misconduct with minors in the 1960s and ’70s at Gonzaga College High School in Washington, DC, where he spent much of his career pre and post-ordination. Others complained that he had made inappropriate sexual comments involving a student and staff member at St. Joseph’s University. In 2007, Father Bradley left the order and was said to be living under supervision in a Jesuit community on the East Coast.
In December 2018, Father H. Cornell Bradley was publicly named accused on the Maryland Province of the Society of Jesus list of Jesuits with credible allegations of sexual abuse of minors since 1950.
In March 2019, a police report was filed in Charlotte, NC, by a man alleging Father Bradley and another priest each abused him as a teen in NC in the 1990s. The alleged victim said, “At 13, I attempted suicide after the assault with Bradley by jumping off the side of the church, and since that point forward, it’s been a revolving door in and out of psychiatric institutions trying to get treatment and discussing the assaults that took place.”
Horowitz Law is a law firm representing victims and survivors of sexual abuse by Catholic priests and other clergy in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. If you need a lawyer because you were sexually abused by a priest in Pennsylvania, contact our office today. Although many years have passed, those abused by Catholic clergy in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia may have legal options, but filing deadlines will apply, so please do not delay in reaching out to us.
Contact us at 888-283-9922 or [email protected] to discuss your options today.