MORRIS COUNTY -

A newly ordained Roman Catholic priest who is accused of molesting a teenage girl was ordered to surrender his passport and cannot have contact with the victim or other children.

The Rev. Marcin Nurek, a polish immigrant, appeared before a Morris County Judge Wednesday. Nurek is accused of putting his hand under a 13-year-old girl’s skirt and rubbing her buttocks over her underwear. He also allegedly told her that she was “sexy.”

Police say that Nurek admitted to doing all of this, but his defense attorney questions if that is true.

“We heard a lot today about the admissions on part of the defendant. Well did he have an interpreter? Because he doesn’t speak English and what little he does is limited,” says attorney William Ware. “I’m curious about the admissions because it’s apparently a big part of the state’s case.”

Ware ways that Nurek also has no history of this type of behavior.

Protesters gathered outside the courthouse in Morristown prior to the hearing. In attendance were members of the group Road to Recovery Inc., a nonprofit organization that advocates for people sexually abused by clergy.

“What we’re saying is the church has not really resolved this issue of sexual abuse of children,” says co-founder Robert Hoatson. “We’re here to say we’ve got to change these structures of the church in order to do that.

Nurek was released from custody after the hearing and must take part in a pretrial counseling program.

He must be supervised by the church. The diocese cannot transfer him to another state.