SOUTH BEND, IN — The report says students repeatedly raised concerns with university officials over Father Thomas King’s actions, but follow-up was slow and inconsistent.

A former rector at a residence hall at the University of Notre Dame frequently weighed male students naked and alone in a deserted locker room and engaged in unwanted sexual contact with some of them during a 17-year span in the 1980s and 1990s, an investigative report commissioned by the university found.

Victims told the investigator that they reported the behavior of Holy Cross Father Thomas King to various Notre Dame officials over the course of several years, but that inquiries and follow-up were slow and lackluster, the report found.

“While Notre Dame’s commitment to addressing clergy abuse has been clear, the University’s execution has been inconsistent,” states the 25-page report by Helen Cantwell, a lawyer with the New York law firm Debevoise & Plimpton, which Notre Dame hired to investigate the allegations in September 2025.

The report, released Thursday by the university and based on over 100 interviews over a nine-month period, says investigators have confirmed that 15 male students at Notre Dame and nearby Holy Cross College were weighed naked or nearly so by Father King, who served as rector of Zahm Hall, a men’s residence, from 1980 to 1997.

“Beyond the weighing scheme, Debevoise also found that multiple individuals, some of whom were weighed, were sexually touched or assaulted by Father King, both at Notre Dame and after he left,” the report states.

Father King, who lives at a retirement facility run by the Congregation of the Holy Cross, did not immediately respond to a message left at the facility Thursday afternoon.

A professor of history, the priest worked at Notre Dame until 1997, but continued as a faculty member at Holy Cross College until 2007.

During his 17 years overseeing Zahm Hall at Notre Dame, the dormitory had “a well-known reputation for being especially rowdy and raucous,” the report states, including a toga parade by freshmen who jumped into mud pits. Afterward, Father King directed the students to remove all their clothes while he hosed them down before they entered the residential building, the report states.

The priest also encouraged an annual naked run of Zahm residents through the campus, the report states.

“Witnesses described an environment in Zahm that was permeated by a persistent sexual undercurrent, where sexualized behavior was normalized and appropriate boundaries were routinely disregarded,” the report says.

First opened in 1937, Zahm Hall was permanently closed as a male dormitory in March 2021 due to a “troubling culture in the dorm” that included vandalism and “demonstrated disrespect for university officials,” Notre Dame officials said at the time.

While at Holy Cross College, Father King oversaw the so-called “Rudy Program,” which helped select students transfer to Notre Dame. The report states that Father King wrote glowing recommendations for student applicants who submitted to his advances but threatened students with negative recommendations if they reported his actions to anyone else.

The report suggests that Holy Cross College may have fired him in 2007 because of his actions concerning recommendations. But the priest went on to lead parishes in Indiana and in Michigan, where diocesan officials were unaware of allegations against him, before being removed from ministry in January 2020.

The law firm’s report found that allegations against Father King brought to officals attention in 2018 did not prompt immediate action because the “weighing scheme was not properly understood as sexual and did not include touching or specific sexual assault.”

“This limited opportunities for Notre Dame to learn the full extent of Father King’s past sexual abuse earlier,” the report stated.

The report also describes sexual abuse by three other Holy Cross priests who worked at Notre Dame, all of whom are deceased, including new details about Holy Cross Father James Burtchaell, the university’s provost from 1970 to 1977.

The university released a written statement Thursday from Holy Cross Father Robert Dowd, Notre Dame’s president, and John Veihmeyer, chairman of the board.

“We are deeply disturbed by these findings and wish to extend our deepest apologies to the victims for what they endured,” they said in their statement. “The conduct described in this report is antithetical to everything Notre Dame stands for and to the dignity and respect owed to every member of this community.”

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