| Rev. Sylvester J. Hoppe Summary of Case: Hoppe was accused in lawsuits in June 2002 and August 2005 of having sexually abused boys in Missouri during the 1950s. He denied the 2002 allegations. Some of the abuse is said to have occurred at an orphanage and at a Boy Scouts gathering. Hoppe was involved with the Boys Scouts for 75 years. He retired from active ministry in 1991 and died in November 2002. In December 2017 the diocese confirmed that it had received a seventh claim of child sexual abuse by Hoppe, dating to 1953-1956. Ordained: 1946 Retired: 1990 Died: Nov. 10, 2002 |
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| Start | Stop | Parish/Assignment | Town/Accusations | State | Position | Notes |
1946 St. Joseph bishop was Charles Hubert Le Blond (1933-1956) |
1950 | Immaculate Conception | St. Joseph • In a 2005 lawsuit, a man accused Hoppe of sexually abusing him beginning in 1950, when the man was a 13 years-old. He said Hoppe recruited him to be an altar boy a few years earlier, when he was 10 or 11 years-old, and that he would sleep in Hoppe's bed with him on overnight trips. |
MO | 2/2 | Immaculate Conception had a school with 150-176 students. |
| 1950 | 1956 | St. Mary's Girls' Orphanage | St. Joseph • Hoppe was accused in a 2002 lawsuit of having sexually abused a boy from 1951-1954, beginning when the boy was about 12 years old. Some of the abuse is said to have occurred in St. Joseph. Hoppe's accuser said he was placed in an orphanage run by Hoppe (there was also a boys' orphanage), and that the priest said that because he wasn't Catholic the boy had to stay in the rectory with him. • Another man accused Hoppe in 2005 of having sexually abused him when he was an orphanage resident in from 1951-1956, beginning when the man was 10 years old. He said Hoppe gave him candy, clothes, wine and other gifts. • In December 2017 the diocese confirmed that it had received a seventh claim of child sexual abuse against Hoppe, said to have occurred 1953-1956. |
MO | Chaplain | St. Mary's had 28-10 girls. |
| 1950 | 1955 | Diocesan Director of Charities | St. Joseph | MO | ||
| 1952 | 1956 | Diocesan Director of Boy Scout Activities | St. Joseph • Hoppe was accused in 2002 of having sexually abused a boy in 1953 during a Boy Scout jamboree in Southern California. He is said to have also sexually abused this boy and two others on a two week trip to California in 1954. |
MO | A chapel at Camp Geiger in St. Joseph was named in honor of Hoppe in 1999 for his nearly 75 years of service with the Boy Scouts. Hoppe's name was removed in 2005 under pressure from some of Hoppe's accusers. | |
| 1955 | 1956 | Catholic Welfare Bureau Vice- President | Tarkio | MO | ||
1956 The Kansas City-St. Joseph diocese was established Aug. 29, 1956 . Its bishop was John Patrick Cody (1956-1961), followed by Charles Herman Helmsing (1962-1977) |
1968 | St. Paul's | Tarkio | MO | 1/1 Administrator | |
| 1968 | 1971 | St. Columban's | Chillicothe | MO | 1/2 | Hoppe is referred to as "Very Rev. Sylvester J. Hoppe, V.F.". |
| 1969 | 1971 | Dean of Chillicothe Deanery | MO | |||
1971 Helmsing was replaced by John Joseph Sullivan (1977-1993) |
1983 | St. Ann's | Excelsior Springs | MO | 1/1 | |
| 1983 | 1990 | Sacred Heart | Norbone | MO | 1/1 | |
1990 Raymond James Boland succeeded Sullivan (1993-2005) |
2002 | Retired | St. Joseph | MO | Per the Directories, Hoppe was living in Noyes, MO. He was known to have concelebrated a mass in March 2002 at St. Joseph's in St. Joseph, MO, at a Catholic Scouting awards ceremony. The first lawsuit naming him as a perpetrator of child sexual abuse was filed in June, 2002. Hoppe denied the allegations. |
Source: Official Catholic Directory (New York: P.J. Kenedy and Sons, 1946-2003) • Lawsuit Alleges Sex Abuse in 1950s, By Judy L. Thomas and Matt Stearns, Kansas City Star, June 25, 2002
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