Assignment Record – Rev. Raymond W. McCarthy

Summary of Case: McCarthy was a priest of the diocese of Fall River MA, ordained in 1945. He served in parishes throughout the diocese and was involved with Catholic Charities until going on Sick Leave for two years in the early 1970s. In 1972 McCarthy was assigned as a nursing home chaplain, then to a parish for a year, before going on Sick Leave again in 1974. He is last indexed in the Official Catholic Directory in 1978, still on Sick Leave. McCarthy was named in 2002 by the Bristol MA District Attorney among priests of the Fall River diocese against whom there were accusations of sex crimes. McCarthy had four accusations against him. McCarthy died in November 2005 in Missouri. According to his obituary, he relocated to the St. Louis area in the early 1970s, where he founded a counseling center in Clayton and presided at mass in parishes throughout the region.

Ordained: 1945
Died: November 2005

   

Start Stop Parish/Assignment Town/Accusations State Position Notes

1945

Fall River bishop was James Edwin Cassidy (1934-1951), followed by James Louis Connolly (1951-1970).

1961 Sacred Heart Fall River MA 4/4, 3/3, 2/3, 3/4, 2/4, 2/5, 3/5 Sacred Heart had a school with 334-422 boys and 241-360 girls.
1952 1967 Diocesan Family Life Bureau Fall River MA Director McCarthy directed Cana and Pre-Cana conferences throughout the diocese. He also was associate director of the Catholic Charities Appeal, and he directed the Lay Retreat Movement.
1961 1962 St. Patrick's Somerset MA    
1962 1967 St. Patrick's Fall River MA 3/5, 2/5, 2/4 St. Patrick's had a school with 331-286 boys and 314-274 girls.
1967 1969 St. Mark's Attleboro Falls MA 1/1, 1/2  
1969 1970 Our Lady of Victory Centerville MA Administrator This assignment is per a news article.
1969 1970 Our Lady Star of the Sea Centerville MA 1/2  
1969 1970 Our Lady of Hope West Barnstable MA   This was a mission of Our Lady Star of the Sea in Centerville.

1970

Connolly was succeeded as Fall River bishop by Daniel Anthony Cronin (1970-1991).

1972 Sick Leave        
1972 1973 Marion Manor Taunton MA Chaplain Marion Manor is listed under "Homes for the Aged."
1973 1974 St. John the Baptist (Portuguese) New Bedford MA 2/3  
1974 1978 Sick Leave       McCarthy is not indexed beyond the 1978 Directory.

1978

St. Louis Archbishop was John Joseph Carberry (1968-1979), followed by John Lawrence May (1980-1992), Justin Francis Rigali (1994-2003), and Raymond Leo Burke (2003-2008).

2005   St. Louis MO  

Although his name seems to have disappeared from the Directories after 1978, McCarthy's obituary notes that he relocated to the St. Louis area in the 1970s. He was credited with founding the Counseling Center of Clayton and was said to have presided at masses throughout the St. Louis area, most regularly at Our Lady of Lourdes and St. Joseph's in Clayton MO. McCarthy died in November 2005.

McCarthy's name was among those on a list released in 2002 by the Bristol District Attorney's Office in Fall River MA of priests from the Fall River diocese with accusations of sex crimes against them. There were four known accusations against McCarthy.

 

Source: Official Catholic Directory (New York: P.J. Kenedy and Sons, 1946-2006)

• Fr. McCarthy to Head Centerville Parish, The Anchor, Aug. 14, 1969
• Bristol's DA Lists Names of Accused Priests, By Michael Rezendes and Matt Carroll, Boston Globe, September 27, 2002
• Bristol DA Rips Bishop for Late List of Alleged Abusers, By Tom Mashberg, Boston Herald, September 27, 2002
• Facts about Who, Where Priests Were, The Herald News, September 27, 2002
• McCarthy, Rev. Raymond W., Fortified with the Sacraments of the Holy Mother Church, St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Missouri), November 14, 2005

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 and 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.

This assignment record collates McCarthy's career history as it is represented in the Official Catholic Directory with allegations as reported in the media. We make no representation regarding the truth of the allegation we report, and we remind our readers that the U.S. legal system presumes that a person accused of or charged with a crime is innocent until proven guilty. Similarly, individuals who may be defendants in civil actions are presumed not to be liable for such claims unless a plaintiff proves otherwise. Admissions of guilt or liability are not typically a part of civil or private settlements. For more information, see our posting policy.

This assignment record was last updated on June 6, 2013