Accuser of Former Wyckoff Priest Blames Church [video]

By Abbott Koloff, Rebecca D. O’brien and Jeff Green
The Record
May 22, 2013

http://www.northjersey.com/news/crime_courts/The_Rev_Fugee_makes_first_cour_t_appearance.html


The man who prosecutors said was the victim of a former Wyckoff priest put the blame squarely on church officials Tuesday for allowing the cleric to continue in ministry, promoting him to prestigious positions, and failing to stop him from working with children in violation of an agreement with law enforcement.

He said the arrest of the priest, the Rev. Michael Fugee, for failing to abide by that agreement “put some finality” to a saga that alienated him from the Catholic Church. And he was critical of the Archdiocese of Newark for allowing Fugee to continue in ministry despite his confession to groping him when he was 13.

“He should have been removed from the priesthood,” said the man, now 27, who lives in North Jersey and asked that his identity not be revealed. “I am happy he seems to be getting what he deserves, after 14 years. But there are mixed feelings, because he never should have had the opportunity to be around children.”

His statements came hours after Fugee appeared in Superior Court in Hackensack, wearing shackles and an orange jumpsuit, after being charged with seven counts of violating an agreement that barred him from working with children. As word of Fugee’s activities in parishes in Bergen County and elsewhere emerged, so did anger among parishioners on Tuesday.

Fugee allegedly heard confessions from dozens of children on seven occasions from 2010 to December of last year, including twice at the Rochelle Park church where he was allowed to live and once in Paramus. The priest, who was arrested Monday at a Newark church where he had been living, was released from the Bergen County Jail on Tuesday after posting $25,000 bail, according to court records.

Fugee did not enter a plea, and the case will be sent to a grand jury, authorities said.

The victim said he had been bracing for Fugee to resurface in the news after it was revealed this year that the priest had been promoted to a new position in the archdiocese. He said Fugee never should have been given promotions, and that his continued service as a priest gave him access to children.

He said he does not believe Fugee has other victims, but added that he cannot be sure. “I would feel terrible, even though I know it’s not my fault,” he said of the possibility of another victim coming forward.

Prosecutors at first opposed Fugee’s entry into Pretrial Intervention, a first-time offender probation program, after his 2003 conviction on aggravated criminal sexual contact was overturned on a technicality. They said he encouraged parishioners to brand the victim as a liar.

“His victim became revictimized by the community,” Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli said in a January 2007 letter to Fugee’s attorney, Michael D’Alessio. Molinelli said on Tuesday that his office always initially opposes Pretrial applications. He declined to say why prosecutors did not hold a second trial for Fugee, a former assistant pastor at the Church of St. Elizabeth of Hungary in Wyckoff.

The alleged victim said that he supported the priest’s entrance into Pretrial Intervention because he was barred from working with children. During the trial, he was upset that people were saying Fugee was “such a good priest.”

“There are so many things wrong with that sentence. He obviously was not a good priest,” he said.

The latest revelations led to renewed calls from some victims’ advocates and politicians for Newark Archbishop John J. Myers to resign and to an expression of outrage from some parishioners at local churches where Fugee allegedly heard the confessions of minors.

Church officials have said a review board determined in 2009 that Fugee had not committed sexual abuse and was fit for ministry. Fugee was allowed to reside in the rectory of Sacred Heart Church in Rochelle Park in 2011 but moved from there in February following inquiries by The Record about him living there.

It recently came to light that Fugee had been attending youth group excursions with a Monmouth County church. Authorities said on Monday, after they arrested Fugee, that the priest heard confessions from children seven times at six locations, including Sacred Heart in Rochelle Park and Our Lady of Visitation in Paramus. Authorities said the confessions were always made in a group setting, and never in private, but involved one-on-one sessions.

Molinelli said the pastors of the two Bergen County churches, the Rev. Robert Wolfee at Sacred Heart and the Rev. Gene Field at Our Lady of Visitation, knew Fugee had been hearing confessions of minors. He did not say whether they knew about Fugee’s agreement with law enforcement.

Neither priest could be reached for comment Tuesday. A spokesman for the archdiocese, James Goodness, declined to comment on the status of the two pastors, or whether they faced disciplinary action. Goodness issued a statement on Monday saying Fugee resigned from the ministry on May 2 because he had “violated certain internal protocols of the archdiocese.” The resignation came days after the allegations from Monmouth County surfaced.

Parishioners at local churches where Fugee allegedly heard minors’ confessions said the leaders of their churches had not said anything about Fugee’s criminal history. Carol Lorenzo, 73, who attends Our Lady of Visitation, said she did not know the priest had been at her church in December until she read about it in news reports Tuesday. She called on Field to explain whether he knew of Fugee’s criminal history. If he did, she said, he “owes an apology.”

“Once a priest preys on a child, they should immediately be told, ‘You can no longer be a priest — that’s the end,’Ÿ” she said.

A Sacred Heart parishioner, John D. Reinmann, said the pastor, Wolfee, should have been aware of Fugee’s history. After Fugee left the church in February, he said, another priest told parishioners that the media exaggerated the story and that Fugee had been “acquitted” of charges against him. Fugee had been acquitted of child endangerment charges but was convicted of aggravated criminal sexual contact.

Reinmann, who said by that time he had read about Fugee’s criminal history, said he felt like walking out of church while the priest talked. “There is so much going on in the church now, I’m getting a little disenchanted with them,” he said.