Rev. Thomas F. Dempsey-Assignment

Rev. Thomas F. Dempsey

Ordained: 1955

Start	Stop	Assignment	Town/Accusations	State	Position	Notes
1955 La Crosse Bishop was John Patrick Treacy (1948-1964)	1958	St. Thomas More	La Crosse	WI	2/2 Pastor was Rev. Thomas E. Mullen.	Parish had a school with 550-600 students.
1958	1963	St. Paul's	Bloomer	WI	2/2 Pastor was Rev. Ralph J. Geissler.	Parish had a school with 305-361 students.
1961	1963	St. Jude's	New Auburn	WI	1/1 Administrator	St. Jude's was a mission church.
1963	1964	St. Wenceslaus	La Crosse	WI	2/2 Pastor was Rev. Alfred F. Hebert.	Parish had a school with 36 students.
1964 Frederick William Freking replaced Treacy as La Crosse Bishop (1964-1983)	1965	Holy Trinity	La Crosse	WI	2/3 Pastor was Msgr. V.J. Plecity. Third priest, Rev. Joseph Martinson, was in residence.	Parish had a school with 516 students.
early 1965		St. Wenceslaus	Eastman	WI	Temporary Administrator
June 1965		St. Philip's	Soldiers Grove	WI	Pastor
June 1965		St. Martin's	Boaz	WI		St. Martin's was a mission church.
Feb. 1966	April 1966	St. Mary's	Bangor	WI	Temporary Administrator Pastor was Rev. Louis J. Paquette.
Late Spring and Summer 1966		St. Patrick's	Mauston	WI	Assistant Pastor
Late Spring and Summer 1966		Madonna High School	Mauston	WI	Temporary teaching duties.
Fall 1966		St. Philip's	Rudolph	WI	Assistant Pastor
Dec. 1966	1968	Sacred Heart Hospital	Eau Claire	WI	Chaplain
Dec. 1966	1968	Northern Colony and Training School	Chippewa Falls	WI	Chaplain	This was a state institution for the mentally retarded.
1968	1970	St. Charles	Genoa	WI	1/1	Parish had a school with 111 students.
1968	Sept. 1969	Aquinas High School	La Crosse	WI	Teacher
1970 Cardinal Richard James Cushing was replaced in Sept. 1970 as archbishop of Boston by Humberto Sousa Medeiros (1970-1983)	1972	St. Michael's	Hudson	MA	3/4, 3/5 Pastor was Rev. Llewellyn D. Chadbourne. Other priests were Revs. Anthony Kneizys, Joseph T. Rothwell and Antonio S. Madeiros.	Parish had an elementary school with roughly 400 students and high school with more than 300 students. Dempsey is indexed in the Official Catholic Directories as "absent on leave", but cited in the LaCrosse diocesan pages as "on duty outside diocese".
1972	1975	St. Clare	Braintree	MA	3/3, 2/2 From 1972-1974, pastor was Rev. John E. Connor and second priest was Rev. Richard E. McQuade. Dempsey worked under pastor Rev. Paul A. Gallivan 1974-1975.	McQuade was accused in the 1990s of sexual abuse. (Herald wire services, carried in Boston Herald February 25, 2003)
1975	1978	St. Anthony	Cohasset	MA	2/2 Dempsey worked under pastor Rev. Joseph T. Brennan and then pastor Rev. John J. Keohane, who arrived in 1977.	Dempsey was exardinated from the La Crosse diocese in either 1975 or 1976 and incardinated into the Boston archdiocese in either 1976 or 1977.
1978 Bernard Francis Law replaced Medeiros as archbishop of Boston (1984-2002)	1985	Sacred Heart	Weymouth	MA	4/4, 3/4 Other priests included Revs. Rickard J. O'Donovan, pastor, Brian M. Flatley, Paul R.E. Francis, William P. Joyce, and John J. Stagnaro.	Parish had an elementary school with 473 students (in 1978) and a high school wtih 362 students (in 1978).
1985	1986	St. Stephen	Framingham	MA	Pastor was Rev. James F. Lanergan. Other priests were Rev. Kevin M. McGrade and, in residence, Revs. G. Michael Scully, c.s.c., and Frederick LaBrecque, ss.cc.
1986	1987	?	?	?		Dempsey's name does not appear in the 1987 Directory.
1987	1989	Sacred Heart	Weymouth	MA	4/4 Pastor was Rev. Paul V. MacDonald. Other priests were Revs. David P. Callahan and William P. Joyce.
1989	1998	Retired	Goffstown • Pleaded guilty in 1997 to having abused during his time in La Crosse, WI. (USA Today, November 11, 2002) Dempsey had been accused of sexually abusing five Wisconsin altar boys. (Newsday.com February 13, 2004)	NH		The Directory index for 1992-1993 shows Dempsey's phone number to be that of Our Lady of the Assumption Church in Chelsea, MA. Documents from Dempsey's personnel file suggest he was living in Medway, MA, not Goffstown, for some of this period. Dempsey died June 3, 1998.

Sources: Official Catholic Directory (New York: Kenedy & Sons, 1966-1998); Dempsey's personnel file, released by the Boston archdiocese in 2002.

Priests in a Parish: We use the following convention to show a priest's place among the clergy of a parish: 1/2 means that he is the first priest listed in the Official Catholic Directory (usually the pastor) and that there is a total of two priests at the parish. The shorthand 3/4 means that the priest is listed third on a four-priest roster. See our sample page from the Directory.

Note: The Official Catholic Directory aims to report the whereabouts of Catholic priests in the United States on January 1 of the Directory's publication year. Our working assumption is that a priest listed in the Directory for a given year was at the same assignment for part of the previous year as well. However, Kenedy & Sons will sometimes accept updates well into the year of publication. Diocesan clergy records are rarely available to correct this information. The Directory is also sometimes misleading or wrong. We have tried to create an accurate assignment record, given the source materials and their limitations. Assignment records are a work in progress and we are always improving the records that we post. Please email us with new information and corrections.