CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19) RESOURCE CENTER Read More
Add To Favorites

Sun Investigates: Episcopal priest named in AG report on Baltimore Catholic sex abuse identified, now on leave

Baltimore Sun - 5/24/2023

An Episcopal minister is on leave from his Allegany County church after being listed as one of 10 abusers whose names were redacted from a Maryland attorney general’s report on child sexual abuse in the Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore.

The Rev. Thomas Hudson of St. George in Mount Savage acknowledged to The Baltimore Sun on Wednesday night that he is listed in the report, although his name is redacted in the public version.

Hudson said he would not comment on the allegations in the report.

“My attorney has instructed me not to speak with you,” he said. He said he and his lawyer have a hearing scheduled in July in Baltimore Circuit Court as to whether his name would be released by the attorney general, and said his name and others that were redacted were not supposed to be public yet.

The Sun contacted Hudson, a former Catholic seminarian, about his appearance in the report as No. 150 on its list of abusers after searching Catholic directories and newspaper articles and comparing them to details in the redacted report.

Hudson, 75, has not been charged with a crime.

Episcopal Bishop Eugene Sutton ordered Hudson, the priest-in-charge at St. George, to take a leave of absence because of “personal” and “family” issues Hudson is facing.

“I imagine you may want to know and say more, but I ask you to respect my need for privacy to address the things that are weighing on my heart and mind,” Hudson wrote in a letter to parishioners that the parish shared Monday on its Facebook page. He asked people to pray for him and his wife.

Hudson also addressed his leave at Sunday’s service, drawing a comparison to when Jesus told his disciples at the Last Supper that he would have to leave them for a while, but would return.

He has not previously been publicly identified. His name was shielded in the public report when it was released April 5.

The Catholic archdiocese, specifically Archbishop William Lori, has repeatedly said the abusers whose names were withheld are not in active ministry. Catholic archdiocese spokesman Christian Kendzierski declined Wednesday evening to answer questions about Hudson.

“Because this topic is centered around possibly identifying an individual in court-ordered redactions, we are not able to offer a response,” Kendzierski said.

The attorney general’s report does not say whether the archdiocese ever informed the authorities about Hudson’s alleged abuse, nor if it informed Sutton or other leaders of the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland.

Sutton did not return a call Wednesday night seeking comment and the Episcopal diocese said it could not immediately provide a response. The attorney general’s office declined to comment.

One of 10 redacted abusers, a Baltimore Circuit Court judge ordered the attorney general’s office to redact Hudson’s name and the others — for now — because they are alive and had not previously been publicly accused of sexually abusing a child.

The attorney general’s office learned about the 10 abusers’ alleged crimes as part of a four-year investigation of the Baltimore archdiocese. Much of the office’s 463-page report relies on the Catholic Church’s records, obtained from a grand jury subpoena.

The judge is expected to hold a hearing as to whether the attorney general can publicly release the still-redacted names of abusers, as well as the names of five high-ranking clerics who the report said helped cover up abuse, silence victims and protect priests from criminal prosecution.

The Sun revealed earlier this month the names of those five officials, prompting one to resign from a hospital board and the archdiocese to cancel the transfer of another to a prominent parish.

The Baltimore Catholic archdiocese learned about the allegation against Hudson in 2009 as part of its investigation into Father Thomas Bevan, who was pastor at St. John when Hudson took a 15-year-old boy camping, according to the report. Bevan pleaded guilty in Frederick County in 2010 to felony child abuse.

A public high school teacher in Frederick in the mid-70s, Hudson was active at St. John Catholic Church in Frederick during that time, according to the report and to contemporary newspaper articles. He met the 15-year-old and his brother when they volunteered to cut the grass at the church, according to the report.

In 1976, Hudson invited the 15-year-old to go camping in Sharpsburg, where, according to the report, Hudson gave the high school sophomore alcohol. When the boy became intoxicated, Hudson pulled on the boy’s belt buckle and tried to take his pants off. “Let me help you,” Hudson told the boy, according to the report. The boy pushed Hudson off and left the tent.

Hudson later taught at Calvert Hall, a Catholic boys’ school in Towson frequently cited in the report as the location of sexually abusive staff, before leaving the profession. There is nothing in the report to suggest Hudson engaged in predatory behavior at Calvert Hall.

After attending an Episcopal seminary, he was ordained an Episcopal priest in 2008. He assumed his role as priest-in-charge of St. George in April 2020.

©2023 Baltimore Sun. Visit baltimoresun.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.