Father Leonard Spanburgh – Archdiocese of Newark

Assignment Record:

DatesAssignment
Approx. 1959 Ordained in the Archdiocese of Newark
1960 – 1963 St. Joseph of Palisades Church – West New York, NJ
1964 “Sick Leave”
1965 – 1983 St. Catherine of Siena Church – Cedar Grove, NJ
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.)

Father Spanburgh died in 1983.

Summary:
  • Father Leonard Spanburgh was accused of sexually abusing a male minor child on at least eight occasions from approximately 1970 to 1973 when the male child was approximately nine to thirteen years old. At the time of the sexual abuse, Father Spanburgh was assigned to St. Catherine of Siena Church in Cedar Grove, New Jersey, and the male child was an altar boy at
    the church.
  • The sexual abuse by Father Spanburgh included the following: Father Spanburgh provided the boy with alcohol to drink, and then Father Spanburgh fondled the boy’s penis and testicles, skin-on-skin.
  • The claim settled in February 2020 in the high five figures.