Fr. Joseph F. O’Brien

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Ordained: 1968
Status: Accused

Diocese: Archdiocese of Baltimore MD

Accused publicly in the 4/5/2023 MD Attorney General’s Report, name redacted. Appears in the report as #154. The Archdiocese received a report in 9/2002 that O’Brien sexually abused a girl, age 15 or 16 in the mid-1970s. She also reported abuse by Fr. Roger Wooden and a lay teacher. O’Brien’s accuser said that he told her he could help her get over her abusive teacher, she could help him get over a woman he had fallen in love with and that he would show her “how real love between a man and a woman could be.” She reported the abuse to a parish priest. The girl never saw O’Brien again. There was apparently no other action. O’Brien went on Leave of Absence in 1976, requested laicization in 1977 and was laicized in 1978.


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