Rev. Arthur J. O'Brien-Assignment

Rev. Arthur J. O'Brien

Ordained: 1983

Start	Stop	Assignment	Town/Accusations	State	Position	Notes
early 1980s Humberto Sousa Medeiros was archbishop of Boston (1970-1983)			Boston • Accusation surfaced in 2002 that O'Brien had molested a 14-year-old boy in the early 1980s, while a seminarian in Boston. (Starbulletin.com July 28, 2002)	MA	seminarian
1983 James Aloysius Hickey was archbishop of Washington DC (1980-2000)	1984	St. Pius X	Bowie • Accused of sexually abusing a boy, removed from ministry in the DC archdiocese. (Starbulletin.com, July 28, 2002)	MD	3/3 O'Brien worked under Revs. Andrew J. Cassin and Mark E. Brennan.	St. Pius X had a school with 546 students.
1984 Oscar Hugh Lipscomb was archbishop of Mobile (1980- )	1985	Christ the King	Daphne	AL	2/2 Pastor was Rev. Hugh Maguire.	Parish had a school with 318 students.
1985 Honolulu Bishop was Joseph Anthony Ferrario (1982-1993)	1987	?	?	HI?		The Official Catholic Directories list O'Brien as "On duty outside the diocese". There is no indication as to where. A 2002 news article states that he was "assigned to a Kalihi parish in Oct. 1985", and "moved to a Mililani church the following year." (Starbulletin.com, July 28, 2002).
1987	1988	St. John Apostle and Evangelist	Mililani Town	HI	2/3 Pastor was Rev. Gary Secor. Third priest was Rev.Gordian Carvalho.
1988	1989	St. Rita	Haiku • Indicted for sexually abusing a 10-year-old boy. (Starbulletin.com, July 28, 2002)	HI	1/2 O'Brien was Administrator, working over Deacon Christopher Hart.
1988	1989	St. Gabriel	Keanae	HI		St. Gabriel's was a Mission of St. Rita's.
1989	1990	Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace	Honolulu	HI	5/5 O'Brien is listed as "In Residence". Other priests were Revs. Terrence A.M. Watanabe, Rector; Jack M. Ryan, C.S.P.; Robert J. Hannon; Russell C. Becker, O.F.M.	The Cathedral had a school with 235 students.
1990	1991	?	?	?		O'Brien is not indexed or listed in the OCD.
1991 Ferrario was replaced as Bishop by Francis Xavier DiLorenzo (1994-2004)	1995	Special Assignment	? • Convicted in 1992 of sexual assault. (Starbulletin.com, July 28, 2002)	?		Indexed and listed in the OCDs as on "Special Assignment", and "Office of the Clergy" added in 1991-1993.
1995	2003	Retired	?	?
2003	2004	Leave of absence	?	?		After 2004, O'Brien's name no longer appears in the OCDs.

Source: Official Catholic Directory (New York: Kenedy & Sons, 1983-2005).

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 & 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.