NEW YORK
BishopAccountability.org
Summary of Case: Joseph L. Theisen was a priest of the Archdiocese of New York, ordained in 1959. He was assigned to parishes in Manhattan, Staten Island, Garnersville and the Bronx. There is an unexplained gap in his assignments 1983-1984. In 1987 the archdiocese began to receive allegations of child sexual abuse against Theisen. He was sent to the Servants of the Paraclete’s treatment center in New Mexico, and was “Absent on Leave” until 1994 when he was voluntarily laicized. Three young men reported to the archdiocese in 1994 that Theisen had sexually abused them in the early 1980s, when they were teens. One of them alleged abuse by the priest from 1980-1984. Each of the three received settlements of $20,000, and were required to sign confidentiality agreements.
Theisen went on to live in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he died in 2013.
Ordained: 1959
Born: June 18, 1933
Died: January 25, 2013
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