Rev. Stanley D. Doerger

Assignment Record– Rev. Stanley D. Doerger

Summary of Case: Stanley D. Doerger was ordained for the Archdiocese of Cincinnati in 1958. Following a brief stint as an assistant parish priest, he spent twenty years at St. Rita School for the Deaf, initially as a resident assistant, then as principal. Doerger returned to parish work in 1980, assisting in Troy and Cincinnati, then pastoring parishes in Xenia and Taylor Creek. In 2003 a woman accused Doerger of having abused her when she was a student at St. Rita's in the 1970s. Doerger denied the accusation. A group of former St. Rita's students claimed he had physically, sexually and verbally abused up to 275 girls at the school. Doerger was kept in ministry. In March 2005 he was suspended after an independent tribunal awarded his accuser compensation. Doerger died in September 2005.

Born: March 25, 1933
Ordained: 1958
Died: September 10, 2005.

Start	Stop	Assignments	Town/Accusations	State	Position	Notes
1958 Archdiocese of Cincinnati Archbishop was Karl Joseph Alter (1950-1969).	1959		Cincinnati	OH		Doerger is not indexed in the 1959 Directory. Later Directories indicate he was ordained in 1958.
1959	1960	St. Paul's	Cincinnati	OH	2/2	St. Paul's had a school with 85 boys and 80 girls.
1960 Alter was succeeded by Paul Francis Leibold (1969-1972), followed by Joseph Louis Bernardin (1972-1982).	1980	St. Rita School for the Deaf	Cincinnati • Doerger was accused in 2003 of abusing a girl at St. Rita's in the 1970s. A group of former St. Rita's students said Doerger physically, sexually and verbally abused as many as 275 girls there.	OH	Res. assistant 1960-1967. Principal 1967-1974. High School principal 1974-1980.	St. Rita's was a boarding school for deaf and hard-of-hearing children. It had a high school with 24-43 boys and 15-39 girls, and a grade school with 40-68 boys and 27-44 girls. Archdiocesan officials said their investigation found that people close to Doerger's accuser disputed her claim. Doerger denied the allegation.
1980 Daniel Edward Pilarczyk replaced Bernardin as Cincinnati archbishop (1982-2009).	1982	St. Patrick's	Troy	OH	2/3	St. Patrick's had a school with 199-191 students.
1982	1984	St. Bernard's	Cincinnati	OH	2/2	St. Bernard had a school with 215-207 students.
1984	1997	St. Brigid's	Xenia	OH	1/2, 1/1	St. Brigid's had a school with 215-259 students.
1997	2005	St. Bernard's	Cincinnati (Taylor Creek)	OH	1/1	St. Bernard's had a school with 265-241 students, and a CCD program with 110-85 students. Doerger was kept in ministry after the allegation surfaced in 2003. He was suspended in March 2005 after the woman who accused him of abusing her as a child in the 1970s received compensation from "an independent tribunal." Doerger died September 10, 2005.

Priests in a Parish: We use the following convention to show a priest's place among the clergy of a parish: 1/2 means that he is the first priest listed in the Official Catholic Directory (usually the pastor) and that there is a total of two priests at the parish. The shorthand 3/4 means that the priest is listed third on a four-priest roster. See our sample page from the Directory.

Source: Official Catholic Directory (Kenedy & Sons, 1960-2006).

• Archdiocese News Release: Specifics Of The Cases,The Archdiocese of Cincinnati, March 9, 2005
• Three Priests Suspended, By Dan Horn, Cincinnati.com, March 9, 2005
• Pilarczyk Suspends 3 More Priests, By Dan Horn, Enquirer, March 10, 2005
• 3 Priests Suspended on Allegations, By Tom Beyerlein, Dayton Daily News [Ohio], March 10, 2005
• Three Priests Placed on Administrative Leave; All Deny Allegations, By Tricia Hempel, The Catholic Telegraph [Cincinnati OH],
March 16, 2005
• Priest Dies before Accusation of Abuse Can Be Resolved, By Christy Arnold, The Enquirer [Cincinnati OH] , September 13, 2005
• 2 Priests Cleared of Charges, Archdiocese Won't Restrict Contact with Children, By Dan Horn, Cincinnati Enquirer, October 13, 2005

Note: The Official Catholic Directory aims to report the whereabouts of Catholic priests in the United States on January 1 of the Directory's publication year. Our working assumption is that a priest listed in the Directory for a given year was at the same assignment for part of the previous year as well. However, Kenedy and Sons will sometimes accept updates well into the year of publication. Diocesan clergy records are rarely available to correct this information. The Directory is also sometimes misleading or wrong. We have tried to create an accurate assignment record, given the source materials and their limitations. Assignment records are a work in progress and we are always improving the records that we post. Please email us with new information and corrections.

This assignment record collates Doerger's career history as it is represented in the Official Catholic Directory with the allegations against him, as reported in the media. We make no representation regarding the truth of the allegations we report, and we remind our readers that the U.S. legal system presumes that a person accused of or charged with a crime is innocent until proven guilty. Similarly, individuals who may be defendants in civil actions are presumed not to be liable for such claims unless a plaintiff proves otherwise. Admissions of guilt or liability are not typically a part of civil or private settlements. For more information, see our posting policy.

This assignment record was last updated on September 2, 2016.