10 Worst Priests in History
Jozef Tiso
As a way to appease Germany in the lead-up to World War II, a selection of allied and axis powers agreed to the Munich Agreement in 1938 that would annex parts of Czechoslovakia. This led to the creation of the Slovak Republic, with President Josef Tiso in power. The Catholic priest was a vocal supporter of Germany. As such, he implemented anti-semitic legislation across the republic. He even went on a grim speech in Holíč, where he defended deporting Jewish people from Slovakia to concentration camps. In 1942 alone, two-thirds of the Slovakian Jewish population was removed from the nation. Once Slovakia was liberated, Tiso was tracked down. He was found guilty of his horrendous crimes and received capital punishment in 1947.
Oliver O'Grady
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In 2006, the documentary “Deliver Us from Evil” was released. The film details the crimes of Irish Catholic priest Oliver O'Grady, who spent most of his career in the US. In 1993, he was convicted of lewd acts and was sentenced to 14 years in prison. Five years later, his victims were awarded $30 million in damages from the church. It was later reduced to $7 million. In 2000, O’Grady was paroled and deported back to Ireland. Yet, during a deposition in 2005, he admitted he had as many as 25 victims. Several years later, he was sentenced to three years for possessing explicit content. Then, in 2020, O’Grady was back in jail for the same offense, this time for 22 months.
Athanase Seromba
Priests are meant to be kind and just people. But Athanase Seromba is anything but. During the 1994 Rwandan genocide, 2,000 ethnic Tutsis used Seromba’s church as a safe haven. However, he ordered bulldozers to destroy the building, then he told the militia to finish off any survivors. After this horrendous act, the Catholic church took Seromba to Italy and changed his name. Due to widespread pressure, Seromba handed himself into the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in 2002. In 2006, he was found guilty of crimes against humanity and sentenced to 15 years. After appealing his verdict, the tribunal realized Seromba was more involved than they first thought. He was sentenced to life imprisonment instead.
Ryan Erickson
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In 2002, the city of Hudson in Wisconsin was rocked by the news that funeral director Daniel O'Connell and intern James Ellison were unlawfully slain at work. For a while, the police struggled to find the person responsible. But by 2004, they spoke to the local priest and associate pastor Ryan Erickson. When he mentioned details about the crime that weren’t published, the cops were suspicious. After confronting him a second time and taking his computer, Erickson took his own life, denying the allegations in a final note. During the investigation that ended in 2005, the police found he was responsible for O’Connell and Ellison’s demise as the director was set to expose Erickson for attacking a teenager.
Bernard McGrath
On the surface, Bernard McGrath seemed like a good person. He led many schools that had students with behavioral and learning issues. And also looked after homeless kids across New Zealand and Australia. But then, the allegations that he was abusing them came out in the early ‘90s. McGrath even told higher-ups in the church about his crimes who didn’t act and allegedly attempted to cover it up. But in 1993, the police had enough evidence to charge him, and he was sent down for three years. Over the years, McGrath’s been sentenced numerous times for further crimes. In 2018, he received a sentence of 33 years for 64 offenses. The following year, McGrath received an additional 27 years.
Frederico Cunha
In 1992, 15-year-old Luís Miguel Escórcio Correia was slain on the island of Madeira in Portugal. Which was shocking enough. But then, the prime suspect was identified as Brazilian-born priest Frederico Cunha. During the ensuing court case, it was alleged Cunha mistreated Correia before his demise, as well as other victims. The priest was sentenced to 13 years in 1993. Yet by 1998, he was allowed to visit his mother due to good behavior. While he was meant to arrive back at the prison in a few days, he and his mother instead managed to leave the country and return to Brazil. Portugal tried to have him extradited back but had no luck. Cunha is currently living free.
Gerald Robinson
In 1980, 71-year-old Sister Margaret Ann Pahl was ritualistically slain at the chapel of Mercy Hospital in Toledo, Ohio. For two decades, no one was charged with the crime. But that changed in 2003 when the police received a letter from a woman who accused Pahl’s colleague, priest Gerald Robinson, of ritual abuse. While they were unable to charge him for that, the similarities led the cops to arrest him for Pahl’s demise. In 2006, Robinson was found guilty of the dreadful crime and sentenced to 15 years inside. Over the years, he attempted to appeal the conviction but was unsuccessful until he passed away in 2014. Then, more controversy erupted when Robinson was buried as a priest.
Gerald Ridsdale
Throughout his career, Gerald Ridsdale took advantage of his position in schools and as a religious leader to abuse throughout Australia. Higher-ups in the Catholic church reportedly knew about his behavior. So, they sent him away for “treatment” and moved him to new parishes. After decades of obscenity, time ran out for Ridsdale in 1993 when he arrived in court. This would be one of many he would experience over the years. At the time of writing, Ridsdale officially had 71 victims, but the complete figure is estimated to be in the hundreds. Altogether, he’s been given a prison sentence of 39 years. Ridsdale is not able to apply for parole until 2027. By that time, he’ll be 93 years old.
Brendan Smyth
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Northern Ireland national Brendan Smyth might be one of the most prolific evil priests in history. Whether it was in his country, the US, England, Wales, or somewhere else, his depraved behavior soon came out. And the higher-ups just moved him when murmurs of his deeds began to leak out. But by 1991, Smyth’s time had come. However, while on bail, he fled south to the Republic of Ireland. By 1994, Smyth was sentenced to four years, with another three years running concurrently. He reportedly admitted his victim count is likely in the hundreds. When he was released in 1997, he faced additional charges in the Republic. He was found guilty and received a 12-year sentence. However, he passed away shortly after.
Hans Schmidt
To date, only one priest has been sentenced to capital punishment in the US, and that was German-born Hans Schmidt. After bouncing around numerous parishes in Germany and in the States as abuse allegations came out, in 1913, he married Anna Aumüller in a secret ceremony he conducted himself. Which, of course, meant it wasn’t official since, at the time, most priests weren’t allowed to marry. At the same time, he was also having an affair with dentist Ernest Muret. Soon after tying the knot, Aumüller admitted she was pregnant. To cover up his rule-breaking, Schmidt ended Aumüller gruesomely. Even after pretending to be insane to get out of the charge, Schmidt was sentenced to execution via electric chair, which took place in 1916.
