BALTIMORE (MD)
Baltimore Sun [Baltimore MD]
August 29, 2023
By Jonathan M. Pitts
An Episcopal priest whose name was blacked out in the Maryland attorney general’s report on sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore has resigned his position as priest-in-charge of a parish in Western Maryland.
The Rev. Thomas Hudson, onetime spiritual leader of St. George’s Episcopal Church in Allegany County, left the position between May 26, when the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland ordered him to take a leave of absence, and July 31, according to Carrie Graves, a spokeswoman for the diocese.
The bishop, the Right Rev. Eugene Taylor Sutton, was to meet with Hudson in July and issue a pastoral directive — a formal written ruling — about the alleged act of sexual abuse by Hudson described in the report that came out in April. The directive could have restricted or terminated Hudson’s ministry.
But the priest, 75, resigned from the job “of his own volition” before the meeting could occur, Graves said. Hudson is no longer “serving in any priestly capacity in any congregation whatsoever,” she added.
Sutton was unavailable Monday for comment, Graves said.
Unlike most of the people included in the report’s “List of Abusers,” Hudson was never a Catholic cleric. He was a public high school teacher, a former Catholic seminary student, and an active member of St. John Catholic Church in Frederick when he met a teenage volunteer in the parish, according to the report and news accounts of the time.
The report alleges Hudson, then in his 20s, invited the 15-year-old high school sophomore on a camping trip in 1976, gave him alcohol and, once the teen became intoxicated, pulled at his belt buckle and tried to take his pants off. The boy pushed Hudson off and fled, the report said.
Sutton said in an interview in May that the priest confided in him in April that there had been an incident of some kind in his past.
Until then, Sutton said, he had heard no reports of any misconduct by Hudson, who had passed the Episcopal diocese’s background checks. He said neither the Catholic archdiocese nor the attorney general’s office ever notified the Episcopal diocese of any allegations against Hudson.
Sutton said Hudson had served in a succession of roles in Western Maryland parishes since being ordained an Episcopal priest in 2006. He became priest-in-charge of St. George’s in 2020.
Sutton said in late May that even though Hudson had come to him to discuss a “pastoral concern,” he only learned the full details of the allegations against the priest when he read about them in The Baltimore Sun.
The attorney general’s report covered 156 people that it said abused more than 600 children in the Catholic archdiocese between the 1940s and the early 2020s. The overwhelming majority were Catholic priests and brothers.
The public version of the document, however, contained dozens of redactions ordered by a Baltimore judge. Blocked out, among others, were the names of 15 individuals who the attorney general’s office said either committed or covered up abuse.
The Sun subsequently reported the identities of the 15, including Hudson, who was listed as No. 150. Hudson acknowledged to the newspaper he had been included in the report, but declined to comment, citing the advice of his attorney. He did not respond to a request Monday seeking comment.
Baltimore Circuit Judge Robert Taylor ordered this month that 43 of the 46 names redacted in the report can be released Sept. 26. The identity of No. 150 — Hudson — is to be one of those made public.
The people to be named have an opportunity to appeal the order before the Office of the Attorney General publishes a version of the report with far fewer redactions.
It doesn’t appear, however, that Hudson plans to object. The judge’s order said No. 150 “retained counsel, who reviewed the Report entries specific to him. According to the Report, he was (in 2009) the subject of a single complaint of misconduct, alleged to have occurred in 1976.
“This individual did not respond to the OAG’s renewed motion to publish his name, and withdrew his request to participate in the hearings.”
Christian Kendzierski, a spokesman for the Baltimore archdiocese, said the archdiocese learned of the alleged case involving Hudson when it was conducting a separate investigation into Father Thomas Bevan, who was pastor of St. John in 1976. Bevan pleaded guilty to felony child abuse in Frederick County in 2010.
Hudson has not been charged with a crime.