Gerald Fitzgerald (priest)

For the Church of Ireland priest, see Gerald FitzGerald (Dean of Lismore).

Gerald Michael Cushing Fitzgerald, s.P. (October 29, 1894 – June 28, 1969) was an American Catholic priest who founded the Congregation of the Servants of the Paraclete, which operates centers for priests dealing with challenges such as alcoholism, substance abuse and sexual misconduct.

Fitzgerald began his ministry as a priest in the Archdiocese of Boston and later became a member of the Congregation of Holy Cross. As part of his work with abusive priests, he asked American bishops and the Vatican in the 1950s and 1960s to not reassign priests who committed sexual assault. He said that they were effectively untreatable and at risk of committing additional sex crimes and tarnishing the Church's reputation. Fitzgerald argued so forcefully for the defrocking of sexually abusive priests that it has been argued that the Catholic hierarchy was long aware of the dangers of allowing such priests to have contact with minors.

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