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Will the Names of All N.J. Catholic Priests Accused of Abuse Be Released?

By Kelly Heyboer and Ted Sherman
NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
August 16, 2018

https://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2018/08/will_the_catholic_church_release_the_names_of_nj_p.html

The release this week of a Pennsylvania grand jury report graphically detailing Catholic clergy abuse that was allowed to go on for decades has raised new questions about the willingness of the church to let go of its secrets.

The grand jury report named some 300 Catholic priests who allegedly molested more than 1,000 children over a 70 year time span.

“But all of them were brushed aside, in every part of the state, by church leaders who preferred to protect the abusers and their institution above all,” wrote the grand jury.

Despite the growing outrage over the report, however, there has been little move to expand the scope of disclosure elsewhere about how pervasive such abuse may be elsewhere, including New Jersey.

“Where is our state?” asked Mark Crawford, an abuse survivor and New Jersey director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, a national advocacy and support group. “Why are they dragging their feet in creating accountability and consequences to allowing a predator have access to children?”

At least four of the priests named in the grand jury report had New Jersey ties, including one who had been arrested for sexually molesting a 14-year-old boy in the Diocese of Camden, but never went on trial because lawyers for the diocese negotiated a deal with the Cape May County Prosecutor’s office that allowed him to plead guilty and have his record erased if he were not re-arrested within a year.

(Star-Ledger file photo)

Will New Jersey's Catholic dioceses release the names of all priests accused of abuse?

New Jersey’s largest Catholic diocese, the Newark Archdiocese, said last week it plans to audit its files of abuse cases, but has made no pledge to make its findings public. Spokesman Jim Goodness said only when the audit is complete, a protocol for determining how to identify and release names will be determined.

Goodness said no determination has been made on whether there will be any release of names or cases.

“We need to go step-by-step on this,” he said.

Officials with New Jersey’s other dioceses – Metuchen, Camden, Trenton and Paterson – did not immediately respond to requests to comment on whether they planned similar audits of their priest abuse cases.

Will New Jersey's attorney general call for a grand jury report similar to the one in Pennsylvania?

The Pennsylvania grand jury investigation began two years ago after the state attorney general asked them to look into allegations of sexual abuse in six of the state's dioceses.

The 23 members of the grand jury spent two years hearing testimony from dozens of abuse victims, priests and church officials and reviewing thousands of pages of documents dating back 70 years. With the help of prosecutors, they produced their 1,000-page report detailing what they called a church-wide systemic cover-up of decades of abuse.

A spokeswoman for New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal said his office is considering whether to take any similar actions.

"We are reviewing the Pennsylvania grand jury report and the work undertaken by the Pennsylvania AG's Office to determine what, if any, additional actions are appropriate in New Jersey. As a general matter, we do not confirm or deny any ongoing criminal investigations," said Sharon Lauchaire, the attorney general's spokeswoman.

What does the Vatican say?

So far, the Vatican and Pope Francis have not commented directly on the release of the Pennsylvania grand jury report or calls to make the names of all priests accused of abuse public.

The release of the report comes as priest sexual abuse has been back in the news with several high-profile cases worldwide, including the resignation of former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, who recently stepped down after he was accused of sexually abusing an altar boy nearly 50 years ago. McCarrick, 88, is awaiting a church trial.

Who were the New Jersey priests named in the Pennsylvania report?

The priests with New Jersey ties in the report include:

The Rev. James Hopkins, who was transferred from Pennsylvania to the Diocese of Camden in 1973. He pled guilty to sexually molesting an altar boy in Camden County and received a ten year prison sentence.

The Rev. Augustine Giella, who served in parishes in Hackensack, Jersey City, Cliffside Park and Glen Rock before moving to Pennsylvania. He died in 1992 while awaiting trial on child molestation and child pornography charges.

The Rev. A. Gregory Uhrig, who worked as an assistant at St. Francis Cathedral in Metuchen in the 1980s and returned to New Jersey in the 1990s. He was removed as pastor of St. Luke Roman Catholic Parish in North Plainfield in 2010 after allegations he sexually abused a minor 30 years ago in Pennsylvania.

The Rev. John P. Connor, who served in parishes in Vineland, Gloucester and Haddon Heights in the 1960s. He was also on the faculty of Paul VI High School in Haddon Township until he moved to Pennsylvania in 1970. He was removed from ministry in 2002and assigned "to a life of prayer and penance" in a retirement facility after being accused of abuse, according to news reports that one of his alleged victims reached with the Diocese of Pittsburgh in 2015.

How have New Jersey's dioceses reacted to the Pennsylvania grand jury report?

So far, none of the New Jersey dioceses have said they will provide any accounting of priest abuse allegations similar in scope to the Pennsylvania grand jury report.

In a statement by the state’s bishops for Newark, Trenton, Paterson, Camden and Metuchen, the church leaders offered no disclosure of their own, but said only that New Jersey’s Catholic dioceses have conducted some 380,000 criminal background checks of all diocesan and parish personnel who have regular contact with minors.

The statement said the accounts of the details contained in Pennsylvania’s grand jury report show “a heartbreaking departure from our fundamental belief” in the dignity and value of every child.

“We cannot undo the actions of the past, but we shall remain vigilant to ensure that not one child will ever be abused on our watch,” they wrote. “We urge anyone who was abused by clergy to come forward to civil authorities.”

Crawford, an unrelenting critic of the church’s policy, said he believes the number of priests charged with abuse in New Jersey could even be higher than those named in the Pennsylvania grand jury report.

“They minimize at every opportunity,” he said.

What happens when a priest is accused of abuse in New Jersey?

In the Archdiocese of Newark, church officials report to a parish when a priest has been removed for an accusation, and if clergy has been removed from ministry pending an investigation, said Goodness, the spokesman for the archdiocese.

“At the end of the investigation, if it’s deemed that canonical proceedings must proceed, we go back to the parish and any other parishes where that person has been,” he said. “We are in fact transparent. We’ve been doing that since 2002 with regularity.”

Church officials also report or urge victims to report abuse allegations to local law enforcement, a requirement enacted by the U.S. bishops after the wave of sex abuse cases in the early 2000s. The local dioceses also report statistics on priest sexual abuse allegations to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

But the church does not regularly publicly report on settlements with abuse victims. In fact, the Archdiocese of Newark and the Diocese of Metuchen did not disclose $180,000 in settlement payments they made to two former priests allegedly victimized by McCarrick, until the former cardinal's very public fall from grace in June that led to his resignation.

Asked why those settlements are not typically disclosed, Goodness said, “It is not our practice.”

Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro at a press conference after the grand jury report on priest sexual abuse was released. (Associated Press)

Will more priests be named from the Pennsylvania grand jury report?

The grand jury report released Tuesday was partly redacted because about two dozen current and former priests went to court to prevent the release of their names. They argue the report is inaccurate of unfairly tarnishes their reputations.

A hearing on the case is scheduled for September. The Pennsylvania attorney general said he will continue to fight for the full release of all the names in the report.

What are some of the recent allegations of priest abuse in New Jersey?

In July, Delbarton School and St. Mary's Abbey, for the first time publicly acknowledged the accusations of 30 individuals who had alleged abuse by 13 past or current priests and monks there, and one retired lay faculty member, over the course of three decades. Among them was the Rev. Timothy Brennan, who was convicted in 1987 of sexually abusing a 15-year-old boy at Delbarton School the previous year. According to abbey officials, they notified the Morris County Prosecutor's Office as each allegation emerged, but criminal charges were filed in only one case.

In 2014, Michael Fugee, who was ordained a priest in the Archdiocese of Newark in 1994, was expelled by the Vatican for repeatedly defying a lifetime ban on ministry to children. Fugee attended youth retreats and heard confessions from minors, despite signing a court-sanctioned decree forbidding such activities. A criminal investigation was launched after The Star-Ledger disclosed Fugee had been violating the 2007 ban on ministry to children, but charges were never filed.

The Rev. Terence McAlinden was suspended from ministry by the Diocese of Trenton since 2007, in the wake of sexual abuse claims by a number of alleged victims, who said he used alcohol, threats and the name of God to coerce them into sexual situations. Accused of sexually abusing a boy as early as 1968 when he was a new priest at Our Lady Of Victories Church in Sayreville, McAlinden died in 2015.

 

 

 

 

 




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