Father Mark N. Matson
Archdiocese of Denver (Theatines Order)
Ordained: 1976
Assigned as follows:
- 1977-1983: St. Andrew Seminary (Denver, CO)
- 1984: St. Patrick Church (Holyoke, CO)
- 1985-1991: Provincial House at St. Andrew Seminary (Denver, CO)
- 1992-1996: Unknown
- 1997: Provincial House at St. Andrew Seminary (Denver, CO)
- 1998: Army Medical Center Chaplain (Honolulu, HI)
- 1999-2019: Unknown
Summary of Sexual Abuse Allegations against Father Mark Matson:
Father Mark Matson was ordained a priest of the Theatine order in 1976, and served in multiple parishes in the Archdiocese of Denver. According to media reports, it took several allegations from several victims in several states before Father Mark Matson was convicted and jailed for sexual abuse. Matson was accused of abuse of two victims in Colorado in 1987 and acquitted of abuse of an additional victim in 1989 in California.
He was finally convicted in 2000 in Hawaii for the 1998 sexual assault of a 13-year-old boy and was sentenced to 20 years. Following his conviction, additional victims from the Archdiocese of Denver came forward to allege abuse are the hands of Matson.
One man came forward to state that Matson began abusing him when he was 13-years-old at his sister’s wedding in 1983. The abuse allegedly continued for several months after the initial event.
Another man filed a lawsuit against the order claiming Matson molested him repeatedly while he attended a seminary in Denver in 1976.
The man met Matson on a visit to St. Andrew’s Seminary as a prospective student in 1976. He stayed in the student dorms and Matson fondled him during the night, according to the suit.
When the boy later enrolled at St. Andrew’s as a ninth grader, Matson continued to abuse the boy throughout the school year. Eventually, Matson raped the victim while he was unconscious.
When the student tried to confront Matson about the incident, Matson expelled him, claiming to have found marijuana in the victim’s personal belongings.
Matson was released on parole in 2013 and is currently a registered sex offender living in Hawaii.
In December 2019, Matson was named in a lawsuit alleging that he sexual abused a minor boy in the 1990s. The boy attended religious education classes after mass. On at least six occasions, Fr. Matson abused him both in the chapel and other rooms at Tripler Army Medical Center, where the boy’s father was stationed. The priest reportedly performed oral sex on the child while masturbating, sodomized him, and forcing him to touch his penis and perform oral sex on him. Fr. Matson threatened that the boy would go to hell if he told anyone, and also told him that the abuse was normal and that if his knew about it, they would approve.
Horowitz Law is a law firm representing victims and survivors of sexual abuse by Catholic priests and other clergy in the Archdiocese of Denver in Colorado. If you need a lawyer because you were sexually abused by a priest in Colorado, contact our office today. Although many years have passed, those abused by Catholic clergy in the Archdiocese of Denver now have legal options, but filing deadlines will apply so do not delay in reaching out to us. Our lawyers have decades of experience representing survivors of clergy sexual abuse in Colorado and nationwide. We can help.
Contact us at 888-283-9922 or [email protected] to discuss your options today.