Newark Archbishop Outlines Clergy-Abuse Initiatives

By Jeff Green
The Record
May 25, 2013

http://www.northjersey.com/community/religion/Newark_archbishop_outlines_clergy-abuse_initiatives.html

The day after Newark Archbishop John J. Myers announced the resignation of his top deputy in response to a growing scandal centered on a former Wyckoff assistant pastor, Catholic officials provided more detail about a series of initiatives designed to prevent future instances of sexual abuse by clergy members.

Critics, meanwhile, said they were not swayed by the archbishop’s move and maintained their calls for his resignation.

In a letter that will be read Sunday in Catholic parishes throughout the four-county archdiocese, Myers wrote that he accepted the resignation of Vicar General John E. Doran, who signed an agreement in 2007 with Bergen County prosecutors that barred the Rev. Michael Fugee from working with children for as long as he remained a priest. Fugee, who had initially been found guilty of groping a teenage boy, recently was charged with violating the agreement.

Politicians and victims’ advocates said the resignation and Myers’ other proposals did not go far enough. A spokesman for state Sen. Barbara Buono, the leading Democratic contender for governor, said she had not reviewed Myers’ statement but she stood by her demand for his resignation.

Assemblyman Joe Vitale, D-Middlesex, said he was pleased by Doran stepping down, but said Myers should be held responsible as his supervisor and for returning Fugee to the ministry in 2009.

“Ultimately the archbishop is accountable for all of this because he put it into motion,” Vitale said.

Fugee confessed to groping a 13-year-old boy while he was at the Church of St. Elizabeth of Hungary in Wyckoff but later recanted. His 2003 conviction on a charge of aggravated criminal sexual contact was overturned in 2006 by an appellate panel because of a judicial error. An archdiocesan review board later cleared him, finding that no sexual abuse occurred.

Fugee stepped aside on May 2 of this year, days after it was reported that he had been attending youth group excursions, including a trip to Canada, with a Monmouth County church. The priest was arrested last week by Bergen County authorities at a Newark parish where he had been living and was charged with seven counts of violating a judicial order. He was freed after posting $25,000 bail.

Myers discussed the matter in a statement and a video posted Saturday on the archdiocese website. He said the archdiocese launched an internal investigation shortly after press reports about Fugee’s involvement with children, which included assertions that he had heard confessions.

Jim Goodness, Myers’ spokes­man, said Saturday that the investigation lasted a few weeks and was conducted by Michael Critchley, a top criminal defense lawyer the archdiocese hired to assist it with the prosecutor’s inquiry.

Goodness declined to say what protocols Doran failed to follow or if he had knowledge of Fugee’s involvement with youth before press reports.

Initially, Goodness said Fugee was allowed to participate with youth ministries if he was supervised, but he reversed himself days later, insisting the activity was prohibited by the agreement with prosecutors.

Goodness said Doran remains a priest in good standing and has not yet received a new assignment. It is not yet known when a new vicar general will be appointed.

Doran’s duties of monitoring compliance with the archdiocese’s abuse protocols will, at least for now, lie with the judicial vicar, Monsignor Robert G. McBride, who was appointed in 2011, Goodness said.

McBride, a canon lawyer, presides over legal issues, such as annulments, and “holds the same dedication everyone in the diocese has to ensure a safe environment,” Goodness said.

As part of Myers’ announcement, he said he will appoint a new special adviser to the archdiocese review board, a post that Goodness said was once filled by a retired judge who died in 2009. The adviser, he said, will serve as a “sounding board and a resource” to board members.

The archbishop also said he would provide the board with more resources after officials discuss with the members, whose identities are kept confidential, if they need anything extra to help in their deliberations, Goodness said.

More resources will be invested into training on sex-abuse awareness and prevention as well, the archbishop said. Goodness explained that the church provides the training to all its employees and volunteers and occasionally to outside groups when asked.

The archbishop has not consulted with Vatican officials about the proposals, Goodness said.

Robert Hoatson, president of Road to Recovery Inc., a victims’ advocacy group, said the church should appoint an independent review board, whose loyalties do not lie with the archbishop. He reiterated his call for Myers to step down and called the statement, in which the archbishop declared his dedication to child protection, an “absolute joke.”

Contact: greenj@northjersey.com