Lots of Names Are Missing from the List of 188 N.J. Priests Accused of Sexual Abuse. Here’s Why.

By Kelly Heyboer and Rebecca Everett
Star Ledger
February 14, 2019

https://www.nj.com/news/2019/02/lots-of-names-are-missing-from-the-list-of-188-nj-priests-accused-of-sexual-abuse-heres-why.html

The lists of priests and deacons accused of child sexual abuse released by New Jersey’s five Catholic dioceses earlier this week was startling.

They contained page after page of names -- 188 in total -- of clergy members accused of sexually abusing generations of children in every corner of the state over several decades.

But the list only told part of the story.

The list, released Wednesday by the Archdiocese of Newark and the Dioceses of Camden, Metuchen, Paterson and Trenton, did not include priests, monks, nuns or others who served in religious orders or order-run Catholic schools in New Jersey. It only included only the names of priests and deacons “credibly accused” while they worked within the dioceses.

So, that means Jesuit priests, Franciscan priests, Benedictine monks and others who served in religious orders that operate under separate leadership structures than the five New Jersey dioceses were likely not included on any of the lists.

It is unknown how many additional clergy members from New Jersey might be on those lists if they are ever all released. Critics said the Catholic community in New Jersey deserves to know the full number of accused priests.

“Each of the lists released fails to include the names of religious order or ‘extern’ priests,” said Mark Crawford, of SNAP, a survivors group for those abused by priests. “While bishops often claim that they do not have authority over extern priests who abuse, the fact that some of these men worked in New Jersey – regardless of whether they were ordered there by a religious order leader or otherwise – behooves the inclusion of their names on these lists.”

Cardinal Joseph Tobin, head of the Archdiocese of Newark, said it is also likely the lists from the five New Jersey dioceses will grow over time as more allegations are made. The lists are not final documents, he said.

“I don’t see it and I believe my colleagues here don’t see it as an endpoint. Like it’s done. We put up our best effort after considerable, considerable investigation,” Tobin said in an interview Wednesday.

There are also additional investigations into clergy members ongoing, though Tobin said he did not know how many.

“We’ve received some new allegations," Tobin said. “All of those things have been turned over to the prosecutor. .. . I can’t speak for what the county prosecutors are doing. But we look seriously at anything we receive.”

Bill Crane, 53, scanned the list of accused New Jersey priests shortly after it came out Wednesday. He saw the name of one priest -- James Hanley, the former pastor of St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church in Mendham -- he said abused him when he was a boy in the 1970s. Hanley later admitted to abusing children for decades and was defrocked by the church.

But a second priest Crane said showed him pornography and abused him as a child was not included on the New Jersey list. That is because the priest, Rev. Justin Capato, was a Benedictine monk working at the Delbarton School in Morris Township.

“I’m not surprised,” Crane said of not seeing Capato’s name on the list.

Crane, who settled a lawsuit against Delbarton last summer, said he gave up on the idea long ago that every corner of the Catholic Church -- including the less scrutinized religious orders, would be truly transparent.

“It’s just another layer of the onion that has to be revealed," Crane said.

Last week, a spokesman for the Order of St. Benedict said the Benedictines have not decided whether to release a list of all monks accused of abuse.

“We are evaluating processes related to the release of names and will make a decision when that is completed," said Anthony Cicatiello, a spokesman for the Order of St. Benedict.

The Jesuits, another religious order, has already released lists of accused priests by region.

There were 10 priests with ties to New Jersey on the list released last month by the USA Northeast Province Jesuits, an organization representing the Roman Catholic order of priests in North Jersey and several other states.

Nine of the ten Jesuits on the list with New Jersey ties served at either St. Peter’s Prep, St. Peter’s University or in St. Peter’s Parish in Jersey City -- one of the centers of Jesuit life and training in New Jersey.

They included the Rev. Andrew Dittrich, a Jesuit who spent two decades assigned to the campuses of Rutgers University and Rider University. He died more than a decade before the Jesuits received the first of two credible reports of alleged abuse of minors, the Jesuit’s report said.

Some critics have also said the list of 188 names released by New Jersey’s five dioceses was not as extensive as it could have been. The five dioceses only released names of priests they said had been “credibly accused.”

The Archdiocese of Newark defined credibly accused as cases where “the allegation is true; the accused clergy is convicted by civil authorities in court; an independent review team concludes that the allegation is more likely true than not, based on evidence.”

That means some priests who were accused were not included on the list because church officials did not have enough evidence to say the allegations were likely to be true.

Tobin, the head of the Archdiocese of Newark, said the process of investigating cases and uncovering the truth will be ongoing.

“We urge anyone who believes they have been accused by a minister of the Catholic Church to report it -- first to the civil authorities and then to us. So, I fully expect this is going to be part of our lives for years to come,” Tobin said.