PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Priest Abuse Trial Blog
Ralph Cipriano
Father Louis DeSimone heard a commotion. When he went to investigate, he found Father Nicholas V. Cudemo “trying to calm a hysterical girl.”
The girl left the church shouting that she loved Father Cudemo. When Father DeSimone asked what was going on, Father Cudemo explained that the girl had a crush on him.
The year was 1969, and the hysterical girl was one of the first victims mentioned in the secret archive files of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. In court Thursday, Detective Joseph Walsh methodically read from the secret files the stories of 10 more victims of Father Cudemo, described memorably to a grand jury by the late Msgr. James E. Molloy, Cardinal Bevilacqua’s former vicar for administration, as “one of the sickest individuals I ever knew.”
Six months after the hysterical girl, church officials reported that Father Cudemo had a woman in his rectory room for half an hour with the door closed. When confronted, Father Cudemo claimed “he was not misbehaving.”
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