Rev. Francis E. Luddy-Assignment

Rev. Francis E. Luddy

Ordained: 1967

Two brothers filed separate civil suits in 1980s alleging Luddy, their godfather, abused them as early as 1978. One suit dropped. Other brother was awarded $1.5M ($519K in compensatory and $1M in punitive) in 1994 civil trial. Multiple appeals but final ruling for Plaintiff 3/06. Final funding not made until 2008. Luddy admitted abusing five youths. Plaintiff's attorney said there were ten others. At least two other suits filed. In 5/04 Diocese paid $3.71M to settle claims against several priests, including Luddy.

Start	Stop	Assignment	Town/Accusations	State	Position	Notes
1967 Bishop of Altoona-Johnstown was James John Hogan (1966-1986)	1969	St. Mark's	Altoona • Plaintiff's attorney in 1994 civil trial stated that Luddy was sexually abusing children as early as as 1968. (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette [Pennsylvania] February 3, 1994)	PA	3/3 ,2/2 Pastor was Rev. Louis J. Mulvehill. Second priest 1967-1968 was Charles D. Rager.	St. Mark's had a school with 302-294 students, and a Relgious Education program with 200-194 students.
1967	1969	Valley View Home for the Aged	Altoona	PA
1969	1970	St. John Gualbert's Co-Cathedral	Johnstown	PA	3/4 Priests were Rev. Edward J. Davis, Pastor Emeritus; Rev. Francis E. Luddy; Rev. Leonard T. Inman.	St. John's had a school with 206 students, and a Vacation School with 216 students.
1970	1972	St. Patrick's	Johnstown	PA	3/3 Luddy is listed last after Msgr. Thomas E. Madden and Rev. William A. Rosensteel	St. Patrick's had a school with 264-206 students. Rosensteel was accused in 2007 of having sexually abused an 11 year old St. Patrick's altar boy in 1971-1972. The priest committed suicide in June 2007. (Altoona Mirror [Pennsylvania] June 26, 2007)
1972	1975	Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament	Altoona	PA	4/4 Priests were Msgr. I.J. Deny, Ph.D., Pastor Emeritus; Msgr. Thomas E. Madden, Ph.D., Pastor; Rev. Leonard T. Inma; Francis E. Luddy.	The Cathedral had a school with 217-200 students.
1975	1980	St. Therese of the Child Jesus	Altoona • Accused in a 1987 lawsuit of having sexually abused a mentally retarded boy in the late 1970s-early 1980s. (United Press International October 25, 1990) The boy was Luddy's godson. Luddy admitted to abusing 5 other boys, but denied abusing this boy. The diocese appealed three times. After more than ten years, the state Supreme Court ordered the diocese to pay 1.7 million dollars in damages to the plaintiff in 2006. (Associated Press, carried in Beaver County Times [Pittsburgh PA] March 24, 2006) • A former St. Therese altar boy accused Luddy of sexually abusing him as a child in a 2003 lawsuit. (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette [Pennsylvania] February 7, 2003)	PA	2/2 Pastor was Msgr. Roy F. Kline.	Parish had a school with 214-260 students.
1980	1987	St. Mary's	Windber • Accused in a 1988 lawsuit of sexually abusing a boy while he was pastor of St. Mary's. The boy was a student at St. Therese's elementary school, and the brother of the plaintiff in the lawsuit filed in the 1987 lawsuit. The abuse is said to have begun when the boy was 9 or 10 years old, and to have ended when he was 16. (United Press International October 27, 1988)	PA	1/1
1987 Hogan was replaced as bishop by Joseph Victor Adamec (1987- )	1989	Absent on Sick Leave				Luddy does not appear in the Directories after 1989. Per news reports, Luddy was sent to treatment in Jemez Springs, New Mexico (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette [Pennsylvania] February 5, 1994), where the Servants of the Paraclete operated a facility for clergy sex offenders (Palm Beach Post June 28, 1998).
1989			• Plaintiff's attorney in 1994 civil trial alleged that Luddy had sexually abused ten other boys. (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette [Pennsylvania] February 3, 1994) • Another accusation against Luddy surfaced in a 2003 lawsuit. (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette [Pennsylvania] February 7, 2003)			"Forced out of the priesthood" in 1999. (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Pennsylvania) February 7, 2003)

Source: Official Catholic Directory (New York: Kenedy & Sons, 1968-1992).

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.