Miami's New Archbishop Was Part of Newark Leadership That Covered up Abuse, Advocates Say

By Allie Conti
Miami New Times
February 21, 2014

http://blogs.miaminewtimes.com/riptide/2014/02/leader_in_abuse-plagued_cathol.php

Archdiocese of Miami, via Twitter

Yesterday, Pope Francis tapped Peter Baldacchino of the Newark archdiocese for a promotion in Miami. During the 18 years he spent under the New Jersey bishop, the 53-year-old rose to become a chancellor serving the Turks and Caicos islands and learned to speak both Spanish and Haitian Creole.

But one advocacy group says Miami should beware Baldacchino. That's because he was a member of the leadership in a troubled diocese where dozens of priests have been accused of molesting kids.

See also: Rev. Neil Doherty Hit With $100 Million Judgment in Miami Catholic Church Sex Abuse Suit

According to the site Bishop-Accountability.org, 42 priests in the Newark archdiocese have been publicly accused of molesting kids. John J. Myers, the archbishop there, told the Star-Ledger in 2002 that an internal investigation had found 51 credible accusations against his archdiocese from 1950 until then.

Still, he defended a personal policy of not naming the priests involved. The Star-Ledger also reported four instances in which Newark's culture of secrecy helped cover up the molestation of three children and the assault of one woman.

Last May, a top Newark official resigned after it was uncovered that Monsignor John E. Doran was allowed continued contact with children after groping a young boy. A former priest in Newark told the Times that "The Newark Archdiocese will not heal until Archbishop Myers has resigned or been removed."

During his time in Newark, Baldacchino was essentially the organization's chief of staff. One advocacy group says that although he's never been linked to the problems there, his silence on the issue is troubling.

"While he's never been accused of abuse himself, he comes from a diocese that we consider extremely problematic," says David Clohessy, the national director of SNAP, which is the oldest advocacy group for those who have been abused by priests. "He's been in the top leadership of the diocese for more than a decade, and we don't see any evidence at all that he's ever done any outreach to survivors or given evidence to the police or really anything that breaks from the mold."

The Archdiocese of Miami says that critique is all wrong. The bishop-elect was abroad for a good 15 years, they say, and had nothing to do with the abuse or any alleged cover-up in Newark.

"Baldacchino was not a bishop in Archdiocese of Newark; he is a priest ordained there in 1996 prior to his assignment in 1999," says Mary Ross Agosta.

But Clohessy says Baldacchino would have interacted closely with Archbishop Myers in Newark even if he was stationed abroad.

"No matter where a priest is physically located, he belongs to the diocese that ordained him," Cholessy says. "He was under Myers, who for more than a decade was just horrific. He's highly discredited."

What's more, SNAP says Baldacchino is being moved from one troubled system to another. Forty Catholic officials governed by Miami's archdiocese have been publicly accused of abuse. The most high-profile case is that of Neil Doherty, a Margate priest who was sentenced to 15 years in prison last month. Apparently, he had been accused of molestation a startling 27 times since 1972 before being locked up.

Clohessy says he's concerned about what will happen when someone raised in a culture of secrecy is given their own organization to run: "We all know who molests kids and who seduces women and who cruises gay bars and who takes money from the collection plate, but since we're all sworn to serve this diocese forever, we're never gonna rat on each other about anything."