Rev. Thomas F. Feldhaus

Assignment Record– Rev. Thomas F. Feldhaus

Summary of Case: Thomas Feldhaus was ordained a priest of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati in 1976. He assisted at parishes in the communities of Mt. Airy and Delhi Hills before beginning an eleven-year pastorship in Ripley in 1990, followed by a pastorship in Cincinnati in 2001. Feldhaus also spent several years in the late 1970s-early 1980s in Rome for graduate studies, and was a hospital chaplain for several years in the late 1980s-early 1990s.

In November 2003 a man reported to the archdiocese that Feldhaus had "inappropriately touched" his young son in 1979 while assigned to St. Therese, The Little Flower in Mt. Airy; Feldhaus was placed on administrative leave. In a lawsuit filed in March 2004 another man accused Feldhaus of having sexually abused him as a boy. This accuser, a former student of Our Lady of Victory in Delhi Hills, said the abuse occurred 1986-1991.

Feldhaus remained on administrative leave until October 2014, when his laicization was announced by the Vatican.

Ordained: 1976
Laicized: 2014

Start	Stop	Assignments	Town/Accusations	State/ Country	Position	Notes
1976 Archdiocese of Cincinnati Archbishop was Joseph Louis Bernardin (1972-1982).	1979	St. Therese, The Little Flower	Cincinnati (Mt. Airy) • Feldhaus was accused in November 2003 of having "inappropriately touched" a boy in 1979 while assigned to St. Therese.	OH	3/3, 2/3	St. Therese's had a school with 545-525 students.
1979	1981	Casa Santa Maria/Lateran University	Rome	Italy	graduate studies
1981 Bernardin was succeeded as Cincinnati archbishop by Daniel Edward Pilarczyk (1982-2009).	1987	Our Lady of Victory	Cincinnati (Delhi Hills) • In a March 2004 lawsuit, Feldhaus was accused of sexually abusing a boy from 1986-1991. His accuser was an Our Lady of Victory student.	OH	2/3, 2/2	Our Lady of Victory had a school with 742-587 students.
1987	1988	St. Therese, The Little Flower	Cincinnati (Mt. Airy)	OH	2/2	St. Therese's had a school with 412 students.
1988	1990	Good Samaritan Hospital	Cincinnati	OH	chaplain	Feldhaus is not indexed in the 1989 or 1990 Directories, nor is he listed in the Cincinnati pages as at his previous or next assignments. This assignment is per news reports.
1990	2001	St. Michael's	Ripley	OH	1/1	St. Michael's had a school with 91-44 students, and a religious education program with 30-139 students.
2001	2003	St. John Neumann	Cincinnati	OH	1/1	St. John Neumann's had a religious education program with 281 students. Feldhaus was placed on administrative leave in November 2003 after the archdiocese received a complaint that the priest "inappropriately touched" a boy in 1979.
2003	2007					Feldhaus is not indexed in the 2004-2007 Directories, nor is he listed in the Cincinnati pages as at his previous or next assignments.
2007 Dennis Marion Schnurr replaced Pilarczyk as Cincinnati archbishop (2009-).	2014	Administrative Leave				Feldhaus is not indexed beyond the 2014 Directory. Feldhaus was laicized by the Vatican October 28, 2014.

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.

Sources: Official Catholic Directory (Kenedy & Sons, 1977-2015).

• Church Faces More Woes, By Kimball Perry, The Cincinnati Post [Cincinnati OH], Downloaded December 5, 2003
• 14 Still Priests Despite Sex Cases, By Lynn Hulsey and Tom Beyerlein, Dayton Daily News, March 12, 2004
• Parish's 3rd Priest Accused of Abuse, By Dan Horn, The Cincinnati Enquirer [Cincinnati OH], Downloaded March 16, 2004
• Status Report on Clerics Credibly Accused of Child Abuse, Archdiocese of Cincinnati, Not Dated, Cached by Google on February 7, 2006
• Victims, Church Still Trying to Pick up Pieces, By Tom Beyerlein, Dayton Daily News [Ohio], April 22, 2007
• Victim's advocate glad to see 3 Tri-State priests defrocked by Vatican, By Tammy Mutasa, WLWT (Cincinnati), October 28, 2014
• Vatican defrocks 3 priests over sexual misconduct, By Dan Horn, Cincinnati.com, October 29, 2014
• Vatican defrocks 3 Archdiocese of Cincinnati priests accused of harming children, By Maxim Alter, WCPO (Cincinnati), October 29, 2014

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 Feldhaus' 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 November 4, 2016.