BishopAccountability.org

In Scandal's Wake, Newark Archbishop Says Church Needs Help Monitoring Problem Priests

By Mark Mueller
The Star-Ledger
June 26, 2013

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2013/06/michael_fugee_archbishop_john_j_myers_scandal.html

Newark Archbishop John J. Myers, seen here in his office in this 2005 file photo, has been sharply criticized for his handling of the Rev. Michael Fugee.

The Rev. Michael Fugee listens in court in May as a prosecutor reads the charges against him.

The Rev. Michael Fugee participates in a prayer circle with teens and adults during a pilgrimage to Canada in 2010.

[with video]

In his first interview on the scandal that spawned calls for his resignation, Newark Archbishop John J. Myers said he will no longer sign off on agreements that require the church to monitor priests placed on restricted ministry over sexual abuse allegations.

Myers, in a lengthy exchange with the National Catholic Register, responded to the controversy involving the Rev. Michael Fugee, who was criminally charged last month with violating a lifetime ban on ministry to children.

The ban was outlined in a 2007 agreement with the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office. Both Fugee and the archdiocese were parties to the agreement.

"We would not enter into a memorandum of understanding that places a burden on the church," Myers said. "The state has more resources. Our advice would be to tell the priest, ‘Go back for a second trial and clear your name.’"

Fugee, 52, was convicted in 2003 of groping the genitals of a 13-year-old boy. After an appeals court set aside the verdict because of judicial error, he signed the agreement to avoid retrial.

In April, The Star-Ledger disclosed he was openly interacting with youth groups and hearing confessions from minors, actions that have since led to the resignations of a pastor and two youth ministers in a Monmouth County parish and to the demotion of Myers’ top deputy, Monsignor John Doran. Myers has faced persistent calls to step down.

Fugee faces seven counts of contempt of a judicial order, charges that carry a maximum prison term of 18 months. Maureen Parenta, a spokeswoman for Bergen County Prosecutor John Molinelli, said Tuesday the investigation was continuing.

In his interview, conducted June 20 and published Tuesday, Myers defended his handling of Fugee and said many facts in the case "have not been fully reported or have not been presented in a balanced way."

"The assignments I gave him were intended to increase supervision," the archbishop said, adding that Fugee was in a chancery office eight hours a day.

Myers did not mention that shortly after Fugee’s return to ministry in 2009, the archbishop assigned him to St. Michael’s Hospital in Newark as a chaplain without informing hospital officials of his past. Fugee was fired from the position immediately after The Star-Ledger alerted St. Michael’s to his criminal case and the 2007 agreement.

Similarly, the archdiocese did not alert parishioners to Fugee’s history in the churches where he was living. The pastors, Myers said, "all knew his situation."

"If they had any problems or suspicions, I am confident that they would have expressed their concerns," Myers said.

Through much of the interview, Myers suggested Fugee was wrongly accused in the molestation case, in which the priest was alleged to have twice fondled the boy’s genitals during wrestling matches.

Fugee confessed to the acts, saying he derived sexual excitement from them and that he knew it was a "violation."

But Myers, as he has in the past, questioned the credibility of the confession, saying Fugee made the statements after first denying wrongdoing and only after a lengthy interrogation.

"When the case went to court, Father Fugee testified that he said what he did in the written statement by mistake at the end of the three hours because he was tired," Myers said.

Despite the archbishop’s contention, the confession was upheld by the courts, and a detective testified at trial that Fugee admitted the acts within 90 mniutes.

The National Catholic Register, a biweekly publication that describes itself as "loyal to the church," did not challenge Myers on his responses. He has declined interview requests with The Star-Ledger and other media outlets.

The archbishop shed some new light on the decision-making that cleared the way for Fugee’s return to ministry in 2009.

An archdiocese review board, Myers said, looked into the allegations for three years "as if they were cops looking into the matter."

"The review board did not give Father Fugee a clean bill of health: He engaged in activity that was ill-advised but did not rise to the level of sexual abuse," Myers said. "They said the limitations stated in the memorandum were appropriate safeguards."

But The Star-Ledger found Fugee had seemingly free reign, ministering to children in the Diocese of Trenton and on annual trips to Canada.

Myers acknowledged the diffuclty of carefully supervising priests who have been accused of abuse, saying it an issue that must be taken up by the nation’s bishops.

"My suggestion is that the bishops work to address these issues soon," he said.

Fugee, who is free on bail, is now living in a charismatic-movement parish within the archdiocese that does not have a school, a youth group or religious education classes, Myers said.

Fugee has been removed from ministry but remains a priest. Myers said he will make no decision on seeking to remove him from the priesthood entirely until the criminal case runs its course.




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