Father Leo Courcy Jr.
Archdiocese of Newark
Ordained: 1962
Leaves of Absence/Sick Leave: 1965-1966, 1979-1980
Inpatient Evaluation/Treatment: 1967-1970
Removed: 1993
Laicized: 2009
Assigned as follows:
- 1962 – 1965: St. Anthony (Burlington, VT)
- 1965 -1967: Absent from Burlington Diocese on “Sick Leave”
- 1966: Don Bosco Home (Burlington, VT)
- 1966: St. Francis Xavier (Winooski, VT)
- 1966: St. Mark (Burlington, VT)
- 1967 – 1970: Servants of the Paraclete (Santa Fe, NM) (inpatient treatment)
- 1967 – 1969: Holy Ghost (Albuquerque, NM) (during treatment)
- 1968 – 1969: St. Pius X High School (Albuquerque, NM) (during treatment)
- 1969 – 1970: St. Francis Xavier (Clayton, NM) (during treatment)
- 1970: Unidentified parish(Amarillo, Texas) (during treatment)
- 1969/1970: St. Anthony (Questa, NM) (during treatment)
- 1970: Clayton High School (Clayton, NM) (during treatment)
- 1971: St. John Vianney (South Burlington, VT)
- 1971: St. Mary (Cambridge / Johnson, VT)
- 1971: St. George (Ottawa, ONT Canada)
- 1971-1979: On Duty Outside Burlington Diocese (whereabouts unclear)
- 1973-1974: Ottawa Archdiocese, Director of Education
- 1974: Our Lady of Visitation (South Gloucester, ONT Canada)
- 1974-75 Marist High School (Bayonne, NJ)
- 1977: St. Mary of the Assumption (Deal, NJ)
- 1977-1979: Various assignments in Pensacola, Florida
- 1978-1979: Pensacola Catholic High School (Pensacola, FL)
- 1979-1980: Leave of Absence
- 1979: Chaplain, unknown Queens, NY High School (believed to be Msgr. McClancy High School)
- 1980-1984: On Duty Outside Burlington Diocese (whereabouts unclear)
- 1984-1985: St. Frances de Chantal (Bronx, New York)
- 1986-1989: On Duty Outside Burlington Diocese (whereabouts unclear)
- 1988-1990: New York Archdiocese Parish Mission Team (Suffern, NY)
- 1991-1992: St. Mary (Fishkill, NY)
- 1992-1993: St. Augustine (New York, NY)
- 1993-1997: Listed in Official Catholic Directory as “On Duty Outside Diocese”
Summary of Abuse Allegations against Father Leo Courcy Jr.:
Father Leo Courcy Jr. was ordained a priest in 1962, and served in the Archdiocese of Newark. He served in multiple parishes throughout his career. The saga of Fr. Courcy is a complicated one and, after an extended investigation, we have done our best to reconstruct what we believe is his trail of abuse across America. Some assignments are not listed because there are gaps in the publicly available information, particularly in the 1970s. For example, Fr. Courcy appears in a 1970 high school yearbook in New Mexico and then again in a 1978 yearbook in Pensacola, Florida. His whereabouts during that time are not entirely clear but he may have worked at other parishes and high schools in Canada or New Jersey. It is documented that he served in the Archdiocese of Newark in the mid 70s, possibly while on assignment at Marist High School (although this has not been confirmed.)
Here is what we do know for certain: Fr. Leo Courcy Jr. worked in Vermont for only approximately 3½ years. He remained a priest of the Diocese of Burlington even though he rarely worked there after 1967. According to the Diocese of Burlington, Bishop Kenneth A. Angell revoked Courcy’s priestly faculties in February 1993, though the exact reason is not clear. However, media reports show him celebrating a funeral mass in the New York area well after that date.
Fr. Courcy was laicized in June 2009, according to the the Diocese of Burlington, while working in NYC. It is not clear what prompted this action more than 15 years after the Diocese said he was not able to work as a priest.
There are numerous “red flags” in Fr. Courcy’s assignment history that would merit further investigation in a sex abuse lawsuit. For example, he has several leaves of absence, which may be indicative of temporary removals and quiet transfers following allegations of sexual abuse. The assignment to the Servants of the Paraclete in 1967 very likely means that Fr. Courcy was the subject of at least one allegation of abuse around that time. It could also mean that he was the subject of repeated allegations as of 1967, because, in our firm’s experience, shipping an accused priest to the Jemez Springs, New Mexico, treatment facility typically came only after repeated allegations and an inability to handle the matter quietly within the diocese. Of course, these questions would be answered with more certainty if either the Burlington Diocese or Archdiocese of Santa Fe provided a full and complete disclosure of Fr. Courcy’s history, rather than the limited ones they each published in response to public pressure.
In 1994, according to media reports, a civil lawsuit was filed against the Burlington Diocese and Archdiocese of Santa Fe alleging that Fr. Courcy and Fr. Joseph Anthony Gallegos sexually abused an altar boy in New Mexico after Courcy’s treatment at the Servants of the Paraclete facility in Jemez Springs. The lawsuit alleged that Fr. Courcy left treatment at the facility and returned to ministry against the advice of at least one psychologist.
In September 2017, Fr. Courcy was named in a lawsuit alleging that he sexually abused an altar boy in 1969 while serving as a priest at St. Anthony’s in Questa, New Mexico. That same month, his name appeared publicly on the Archdiocese of Santa Fe’s list of clergy credibly accused of sex abuse of minors.
In May 2019, Fr. Courcy was named in another lawsuit against the Servants of the Paraclete, alleging that Courcy sexually abused two boys during an overnight stay at the rectory of St. Anthony’s in Questa, New Mexico, in 1969. According to the suit, one boy was raped and the other molested. According to the lawsuit, the Servants of the Paraclete sent Fr. Courcy to St. Anthony’s as a supply priest four days after his arrival for his second round of treatment for child sexual abuse.
In August 2019, Fr. Courcy‘s name appeared publicly on the Diocese of Burlington’s list of clergy credibly accused of sex abuse of minors. While the Diocese included certain information about Fr. Courcy’s background in its disclosure, we have found that much of it is inaccurate and overall it is totally incomplete.
In 2021, Courcy was named in a sexual abuse and coverup lawsuit filed by Horowitz Law against the Diocese of Burlington in Vermont.
Fr. Courcy is now in his 80s and believed to be living in the Syracuse, New York, area. To our knowledge, he has never been criminally charged for his sexual misconduct and is not a registered sex offender.
Horowitz Law is a law firm representing victims and survivors of sexual abuse by Catholic priests and other clergy in the Archdiocese of Newark in New Jersey. If you need a lawyer because you were sexually abused in the Archdiocese of Newark, contact our office today. Although many years have passed, those abused by Catholic clergy in the Archdiocese of Newark 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 New Jersey and nationwide. We can help.
Contact us at 888-283-9922” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener noreferrer” data-auth=”NotApplicable” data-linkindex=”0″>888-283-9922 or [email protected] to discuss your options today.