Rev. Robert C. Fichtner-Assignment

Rev. Msgr. Robert C. Fichtner

Summary of Case: Fichtner was suspended from public ministry in 2003 due to an accusation that he had sexually abused a 9 year old boy in the late 1980s. His suspension was lifted by the archdiocese in 2005 when the archdiocesan review board deemed the accusation "unsubstatiated". Fichtner had retired in 2002.

Ordained: 1955

Start	Stop	Assignment	Town/Accusations	State	Position	Notes
1955 Boston archbishop was Richard James Cushing (1944-1970)	1957	St. Peter's	Plymouth	MA	3/3
1957	1958	Catholic University	Washington	DC
1958	1959	St. Michael's Mission-Dracut	Lowell	MA	5/6	Parish had a school with 590 boys and 571 girls.
1959	1967	SS. Peter and Paul	South Boston	MA	3/8, 2/7, 2/5
1967 Cushing was succeeded by Humberto Sousa Medeiros (1970-1983)	1981	Our Lady Help of Christians	Newton	MA	3/5,3/4,2/4	Our Lady's had a grade school with 553-378 students and a high school with 198-291 students.
1981 Bernard Francis Law replaced Medeiros (1984-2002)	1990	St. Joseph's	Holbrook • In 2003 a 27 year old man accused Fichtner of having sexually abused him during confession when the man was a 9 year old fourth grader at the parish school. The man said that he was violently forced to perform oral sex on Fichtner. (Patriot Ledger [Quincy, MA] March 8, 2005)	MA	1/3,1/2	St. Joseph's had a school with 236-365 students.
1990	2002	St. Patrick's	Watertown	MA	1/2,1/3	Referred to as "Very Rev."
2002 Sean Patrick O'Malley, o.f.m. Cap. succeeded Law (2003-)	2010	Retired	Waltham	MA		Retired in 2002. Placed on administrative leave in 2003 due to allegation from his post at St. Joseph's. (Holbrook Sun [Holbrook MA] June 10, 2005) Allowed in 2005 by the archdiocese to return to ministry after church review board determined the allegation was "unsubstantiated", (Boston.com [Boston MA] June 8, 2005) Said to be living as of 2005 in Waltham MA. Still in Waltham in Nov. 2010, per the archdiocesan website, as Rev. Msgr. Robert Fichtner.

Source: Official Catholic Directory (New York: Kenedy & Sons, 1956-2007).

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.

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 & 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.