Father Robert Hopkins
Archdiocese of Baltimore
Ordained: 1948
Removed: 1995
Died: 2006
Assignment History:
- 1948-1958: St. Mary Parish (Cumberland, MD)
- 1950: Assistant Director of the Propagation of the Faith for Western Maryland
- 1958-1962: St. Mary Parish (Cumberland, MD)
- 1962: St. Mildred’s Parish (Gray Manor, MD) and Saint Adrian Parish (Inverness, MD)
- 1967-1968: Our Lady of Hope Parish (Dundalk, MD)
- 1968-1971: St. Jerome Parish (Baltimore, MD)
- 1971-1982: Church of St. Mary of the Annunciation (Lonaconing, MD)
- 1982: St. Patrick Parish (Cumberland, MD)
- 1995: Retired
Summary of Sexual Abuse Allegations Against Father Robert Hopkins:
Fr. Robert Hopkins was ordained a Catholic priest and worked in the Archdiocese of Baltimore. In 2002, Fr. Hopkins was listed on the Archdiocese of Baltimore’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 Robert Hopkins.
According to the Attorney General’s report, in 1995, two men reported they were sexually abused by Fr. Hopkins in the 1970s when Hopkins worked at St. Mary of the Annunciation in Lonaconing. The first victim was a 12-year-old altar boy in 1973. He began opening the rectory in the mornings and helping with additional services. Fr. Hopkins asked him to spend the night in the rectory, and Hopkins slept in the same bed with the victim, touching his genitals on the first occasion. Hopkins repeatedly raped the boy both orally and anally for five years when the boy was 17. After the abuse ended, Hopkins wrote the victim a letter saying he was “sorry for anything he’d done.” Hopkins admitted to the abuse and added that he also sexually abused the victim on trips to Philadelphia, Orlando, and Virginia.
The second victim was approximately ten years old when he started sleeping at the rectory. On the boy’s second time spending the night, Hopkins walked in wearing only a towel and woke the victim up by fondling his genitals. Another time, Hopkins orally raped the boy. The boy stopped going to the rectory. Hopkins admitted to this as well. His faculties were removed.
Diocesan documents revealed that Fr. Hopkins was sent to St. Luke Institute for treatment and admitted to sexually abusing the two boys and several other minors from the late 1950s to early 1980s. The report states that Hopkins said the first time he sexually abused a boy was in 1955, and the victim was 14 or 15 years old. His most recent abuse was in 1978 or 1979. Hopkins estimated that he sexually abused at least 14 boys.
A few months later, in 1995, another man reported that he was sexually abused by Hopkins in the summer of 1948. He said that Hopkins fondled him on multiple occasions. The man also gave the name of another victim.
In September 1995, another man reported anonymously that he was abused three times by Hopkins at St. Mary’s in Lonaconing. In 2002, a man reported that he was sexually abused by Hopkins when he was ten years old. He was one of the victims named by Hopkins in 1995. He spoke to law enforcement in 1995 but not the Archdiocese. When confronted in 1995, Hopkins said that he sexually abused the victim from 1972 through 1973 when the victim was 11 years old.
In 2019, a man reported that he was sexually abused by Hopkins from the 10th grade to the 12th grade at St. Mary in Lonaconing. In 2019, a man reported that he was sexually abused by Hopkins from 1982 through 1990 when he was a student at St. Patrick Catholic School in Cumberland. Hopkins would corner him in the church, so the victim tried to avoid serving Mass. In 2021, a former parishioner of Our Lady of Hope reported that several of his classmates have been sexually abused by Hopkins while working at the parish in the 1960s.
Hopkins retired in 1995, just prior to the receipt of these allegations. His faculties to perform ministry were removed, but he was financially supported by the Archdiocese until his death in 2006.
Horowitz Law is a law firm representing victims and survivors of sexual abuse by Catholic priests and other clergy in the Archdiocese of Baltimore in Maryland. If you need a lawyer because you were sexually abused by a priest in Maryland, contact our office today. Our lawyers have decades of experience representing survivors of clergy sexual abuse nationwide. We can help. Contact us at 888-283-9922 or [email protected] to discuss your options today.