Rev. Herman J. Lammers

Summary of Case: Lammers was director of Catholic Charities 1939-1976, and resident chaplain of St. Thomas-St. Vincent Home, which was an orphanage in Anchorage, KY. Accused by at least 32 people in lawsuits filed from 2002-2004 as a perpetrator of child sexual abuse. Most of the accusers lived as children at the orphanage, where they claim abuse by Lammers as well as abuse and neglect on the part of the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth, who ran the Home. Lammers died August 11, 1986.

Ordained: 1932
Died: August 11, 1986

   

Start Stop Assignment Town/Accusations State Position Notes

1932

Louisville archbishop was John Alexander Floersh (1924-1967)

1937 Cathedral of the Assumption Louisville KY

4/4 ,4/7

 

 The Cathedral had a school with 88-80 students.
1932 1937 St. Helena's Commercial College Louisville KY   This was a chapel of the Cathedral.
1932 1933 Good Shepherd Convent Louisville KY   This was a chapel of the Cathedral.
1933 1934 St. Catherine's Convent of the Sisters of Mercy Louisville KY   This was a chapel of the Cathedral.
1934 1937 Nazareth College Louisville KY

 

 

 This was a chapel of the Cathedral.
1936 1937 St. Aloysius Shepherdsville KY   This was a mission of the Cathedral.
1937 1939 Holy Trinity Fredericktown KY 1/1 Parish had a school with 193-265 students.
1937 1939 Holy Rosary Blincoe KY 1/1 Parish had a school with 93 students. This was a mission of Holy Trinity in Fredericktown.

1939

Thomas Joseph McDonough replaced Floersh as archbishop (1967-1981), followed by Thomas Cajetan Kelly (1981-2007)

1982 St. Thomas-St. Vincent Home

Anchorage

• A woman accused Lammers in a July 2002 lawsuit of having sexually abusing her "on or after 1955", when she was ten years old and living at St. Thomas-St. Vincent Home. (Courier-Journal [Louisville, KY]
July 24, 2002)

• Another woman filed suit in Aug. 2002, saying Lammers of "forcibly sexually molested, battered and assaulted" her when she was a child living at the Home, in about 1963. (Louisville Courier Journal
September 29, 2002 )

• Six more people accused Lammers in a 2004 lawsuit of having sexually abusing them as children and residents of St. Thomas-St. Vincent. They also named Sr. Mary Ann Powers and Sr. Alma Stueker as perpetrators of sexual abuse against them. (Associated Press, carried in Lexington Herald-Leader
July 16, 2004) The nuns were Sisters of Charity of Nazareth, who staffed the Home. Five of the plaintiffs were female siblings who claimed that when they tried to tell the nuns of the abuse by Lammers, the nuns either didn't believe them or physically abused them. One of the sisters stated that she became impregnated by Lammers, and later miscarried. (The Courier-Journal
July 20, 2004)

• Four more people accused Lammers in Aug. 2004, totaling twenty three of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit against the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth. The abuse is said to have occurred in the 1950s and 1960s. (The Courier-Journal [Louisville KY]
Downloaded August 11, 2004)

• Two more women came forward in Aug. 2004 with allegations of rape by Lammers in the 1950s and '60s, when they were residents of the orphanage. (The Associated Press
August 25, 2004)

• By Sept. 2004 thirty-two people had accused Lammers of sexually abusing them as children, forty-one had sued the Sisters of Charity, accusing them of failing to protect them from abuse between the 1930s and 1970s. Fourteen of the plaintiffs accused fifteen of the nuns of sexual or physical abuse. Three people claimed that a male volunteer and a male assistant at St. Thomas-St. Vincent Home molested them as children. (Associated Press, carried in Kentucky.com [Louisville KY]
September 12, 2004)

KY Chaplain The Home was an orphanage. It was St. Thomas' Orphan Asylum for Boys until it merged with St. Vincent, which was a girls' orphanage, in 1952.
1939 1976 Catholic Charities Louisville KY Director Lammers was named a monsignor in 1955.
1982 1986 Retired Louisville KY   Lammers lived in an apartment in Louisville in his retirement. He died August 11, 1986.


Source: Official Catholic Directory (New York: P.J. Kenedy and Sons, 1933-1987)

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.

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 Lammers' career history as it is represented in the Official Catholic Directory with allegations as reported in the media. We make no representation regarding the truth of the allegation 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 December 31, 2009.