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Summary of Case: Ordained in 1949, James P. Vallely started his priesthood in in the Archdiocese of Portland OR. In 1951 he transferred to the Diocese of Portland ME, where he was incardinated in 1952. He assisted in parishes in Waterville, Bangor and Portland, and was chaplain for a hospital and an orphanage. He served as temporary administrator of a Limestone parish before being named pastor in Machias and then South Berwick. He retired in 1988, spending winters in the Orlando FL diocese and assisting in area parishes.
In 1993 a ME man reported to the diocese that Vallely sexually abused him in the late 1950s over a two to four-year period at St. Dominic’s in Portland. He said the abuse began when he was a 9-year-old altar boy. He and a second man with similar allegations went to the media. As a result, a third man came forward alleging abuse as a boy at St. Dominic’s by Vallely. The diocese received five complaints about Vallely between January and March 1993, and he was sent to outpatient treatment in FL. He died in 1997.
Vallely accusers continued to emerge. In 2007 a woman told the diocese she was sexually abused by Vallely in 1976, when she was an 11-year-old altar server at St. Michael’s in Berwick. She received a settlement in 2009. In 2013 two brothers alleged abuse by Vallely when they were St. Michael’s altar boys in the 1970s, and in 2015 four more men reported abuse by Vallely as boys at St. Michael’s. Six men sued the diocese in November 2015, claiming Vallely abused them between 1956 and 1977, and that the diocese knew he was a sexual predator. The abuse is said to have included rape, and the victims were 8 to 15 years-old. The men cited a 2005 letter which indicated that at least five boys at St. John’s in Bangor reported in the 1950s that Vallely was abusing them. The diocese settled with the six men for $2.1 million in August 2016.
Ordained: 1949
Retired: 1988
Died: December 12, 1997
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