Father Leon Dicks, O.F.M.Conv. - Diocese of Trenton - Conventual Franciscans, Province of the Immaculate Conception

Assignment Record:

DatesAssignment
Approx. 1957 Ordained by the Conventual Franciscans
1958 St. Francis Seminary, New York City, NY
1959 – 1967 St. Francis Hospital (chaplain), Trenton, NJ (Diocese of Trenton)
1968 – 1970 Catholic Information Center, Binghamton, NY
1971 – 1972 St. Peter’s Church, Riverside, NJ (Diocese of Trenton)
1973 – 1987 St. Francis Hospital (chaplain), Trenton, NJ (Diocese of Trenton); In approx. 1975, the hospital was renamed “St. Francis Medical Center”
1988 Assumption B.V.M. Church, Syracuse, NY
1988 Provincial House of the Immaculate Conception Province, Syracuse, NY
1989 – 1991 St. Bartholomew’s Church, Camden, NJ
1992 – 1993 San Damiano Friary, Holyoke, MA
1994 St. Peter’s Church, Point Pleasant Beach, NJ (Diocese of Trenton)
1995 Franciscan Mission House, Rensselaer, NY
1996 – 2002 Not indexed
2003 – 2005 St. Cecilia Church, Fonda, NY
2005 The National Shrine of Blessed Kateri Yekakwitha and Friary, Fonda, NY
2006 – 2009 Not indexed
Source:
  • The Official Catholic Directory, Kenedy & Sons

(The years listed above are the publication years of the Official Catholic Directory. According to the Directory, the assignments provided for a given year are effective as of January 1 of that year. This means that a priest listed in the Directory for a given year at a parish or school was likely at the same assignment for at least part of the previous year as well.)

Summary:
  • Father Dicks died in 2009.
  • Father Leon Dicks, O.F.M.Conv. was accused of sexually abusing a female minor child on approximately thirty occasions from approximately 1958 to 1961 when the female child was approximately eleven to fourteen years old. At the time of the sexual abuse, Father Dicks was assigned as a chaplain at St. Francis Hospital in Trenton, New Jersey, and the female child received treatment on multiple occasions at the hospital. The sexual abuse took place in the girl’s hospital room.
  • The sexual abuse by Father Dicks included the following: Father Dicks kissed the girl on the lips, inserting his tongue into her mouth. Father Dicks fondled the girl’s vagina and penetrated her vagina with his fingers. Father Dicks exposed his penis to the girl and forced the girl to touch his penis with her hand and kiss his penis.
  • The claim settled in May 2020 in the low six figures.