Rev. Ronald Cooper

Assignment Record– Rev. Ronald Cooper

Summary of Case: Ronald Cooper was ordained for the Archdiocese of Cincinnati in 1983. He was assigned as an assistant to parishes in Bridgetown, Groesbeck, Dayton and Withamsville before being named pastor in Greenfield. He also pastored parishes in New Vienna and Fayetteville. In late 2003 a man told the archdiocese that Cooper sexually abused him as a boy in the early 1980s while assigned to St. Aloysius Gonzaga in Bridgetown. The man said the abuse happened at the parish and at the Friar's Club. Cooper acknowledged contact with the boy, but denied "sexual intent." He was suspended from ministry in January 2004. The case could not be criminally prosecuted due to the statute of limitations. Cooper was laicized in October 2014.

Ordained: 1983
Laicized: 2014

Start	Stop	Assignments	Town/Accusations	State	Position	Notes
1983 Archdiocese of Cincinnati Archbishop was Daniel Edward Pilarczyk (1982-2009).	1986	St. Aloysius Gonzaga	Cincinnati (Bridgetown) • In late 2003 a man alleged Cooper sexually abused him when he was a teenage r and Cooper was assigned to St. Aloysius. He said the abuse happened at the parish and at the Friar's Club in Cincinnati. Cooper acknowledged contact with the boy, but said there was no "sexual intent."	OH	2/3	St. Aloysius had a school with 365-340 students.
1986	1989	St. Ann's	Cincinnati (Groesbeck)	OH	2/3	St. Ann's had a school with 430-398 students.
1989	1990	St. Albert the Great	Dayton	OH	2/3	St. Albert's had a school with 504 students.
1990	1994	St. Thomas More	Withamsville	OH	2/3, 2/4	St. Thomas More had a school with 216-140 students, and a CCD program with 264-309 students.
1994	2003	St. Benignus	Greenfield	OH	1/1	Cooper resided here. St. Benignus had a CCD program with 50-69 students.
1994	2003	St. Michael's	New Vienna	OH	1/1	St. Michael's had a CCD program with 32-27 students.
2003	2004	St. Angela Merici	Fayetteville	OH	1/1
2003	2004	Holy Name	Blanchester	OH		This was a chapel of St. Angela Merici in Fayetteville.
2003	2004	St. Patrick's	Fayetteville	OH		This was a chapel of St. Angela Merici in Fayetteville.
2003	2004	St. Martin's	St. Martin	OH		This was a chapel of St. Angela Merici in Fayetteville.
2004	2007					Cooper was suspended from ministry in January 2004 due to the allegation that he had sexually abused a teen boy in the early 1980s while assigned to St. Aloysius. Archdiocesan officials said they reported the allegation to law enforcement. Prosecutors said they could not be proceed due to the statute of limitations. Cooper is not indexed in the 2005-2007 Directories.
2007 Pilarczyk was succeeded as Cincinnati archbishop by Dennis Marion Schnurr (2009-).	2014	Administrative Leave				Cooper is not indexed in the 2015 Directory. His laicization by the Vatican was announced in October 2014.

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.

Source: Official Catholic Directory (Kenedy & Sons, 1983-2013).

• Archdiocese Suspends Priest, By Dan Horn, Cincinnati Enquirere, January 14, 2004
• Priest Suspended on Abuse Allegation, By Tom Beyerlein, Dayton Daily News, January 14, 2004
• Status Report on Clerics Credibly Accused of Child Abuse, Archdiocese of Cincinnati, Not Dated, Cached by Google on February 7, 2006
• Victims, Church Still Trying to Pick up Pieces, By Tom Beyerlein, Dayton Daily News, April 22, 2007
• Victim's advocate glad to see 3 Tri-State priests defrocked by Vatican, By Tammy Mutasa, WLWT (Cincinnati), October 28, 2014
• Vatican defrocks 3 priests over sexual misconduct, By Dan Horn, Cincinnati.com, October 29, 2014
• Vatican defrocks 3 Archdiocese of Cincinnati priests accused of harming children, By Maxim Alter, WCPO (Cincinnati), October 29, 2014

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 and 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.

This assignment record collates Cooper's career history as it is represented in the Official Catholic Directory with the allegations against him, as reported in the media. We make no representation regarding the truth of the allegations we report, and we remind our readers that the U.S. legal system presumes that a person accused of or charged with a crime is innocent until proven guilty. Similarly, individuals who may be defendants in civil actions are presumed not to be liable for such claims unless a plaintiff proves otherwise. Admissions of guilt or liability are not typically a part of civil or private settlements. For more information, see our posting policy.

This assignment record was last updated on August 28, 2016.