Catholic Church will sell retired archbishop’s huge, controversial N.J. home

By Allison Pries
NJ Advance Media
January 29, 2020

https://www.nj.com/news/2020/01/catholic-church-will-sell-retired-archbishops-huge-controversial-nj-home.html

The retirement home of Archbishop John J. Myers when it was undergoing a 3,000 square foot addition, bringing the Franklin Township colonial to 7.500 square feet.

On July 24, 2001, Bishop John J. Myers of Peoria, Ill., was named archbishop of Newark. Here he blesses members of a crowd gathered outside the Archdioceasn Center in Newark for the announcement.

Retired Newark Archbishop John J. Myers has left the state to live with family in Illinois as his health declines, the archdiocese said in a statement Wednesday.

The palatial, 7,500-square-foot home in Hunterdon County that drew protests when Myers retired to it three years ago will be sold by the diocese, according to a statement from Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin.

“After a recent visit with his family in central Illinois, Archbishop Myers decided to remain in the region of his birth where he is receiving specialized care and can be visited by his family as well as the clergy of the Diocese of Peoria,” Tobin said.

Myers drew criticism during his 15-year tenure as Archbishop for allowing a priest who admitted to sex offenses participate in youth programs against the terms of a legal agreement. He also was lambasted while retiring for adding a 3,000 square foot addition onto a 4,500 square foot home in Franklin Township.

The $500,000 addition to the five bedroom, three bath home included an indoor exercise pool, three fireplaces, an elevator and a library.

Angry parishioners and members of a national Christian group in 2014 gathered more than 22,000 signatures asking Myers to sell the home and use the money to feed the poor or help the homeless.

But Myers, who used the home prior to his 2016 retirement as a weekend retreat, was not deterred by the public outcry.

The archdiocese bought the home in 2002 for $700,000. The addition was financed by the sale of another church-owned property and private donations, a diocese spokesman said at the time.

“The Archdiocese has begun preparation for the sale of [Myers'] retirement residence in Hunterdon County,” Cardinal Tobin said in his statement Wednesday. “After members of his family have collected his personal possessions, the home and property will be sold and the funds will be returned to the Archdiocese.”

The other blemish on Myers’ career was allowing the former Rev. Michael Fugee to participate in youth programs through St. Mary’s Church of Colts Neck.

Fugee was charged with criminal sexual contact in 2001 for allegedly fondling the genitals of a 14-year-old boy on two occasions during wrestling matches. At the time, the priest served as assistant pastor at the Church of St. Elizabeth in Wyckoff.

Fugee admitted to police that he touched the boy and a jury convicted him two years later. He was sentenced to five years probation. But the verdict was thrown out on appeal because jurors were told that Fugee identified as bisexual and the appellate panel ruled that jurors might’ve drawn an association between homosexuality and pedophilia.

In order to avoid a retrial, Fugee was allowed to enter a program for first time offenders that required him to enter rehabilitation, undergo sex offender counseling and sign a binding agreement saying he would have no affiliation with youth groups, would not attend youth retreats and would not hear confessions from minors.

But Fugee was placed back into youth ministry while he was supposed to be under the supervision of the Newark Archdiocese.

A spokesman for the Newark Archdiocese in 2013, when Fugee’s involvement in youth ministry came to light, said Fugee was supervised by other ministers and laypeople and no other incidents had been reported.

Fugee’s return to working with children was brought to light by a story published by NJ Advance Media. It led to his case being reopened by the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office.

Fugee was found to be in violation of the terms of his legal agreement. He was stripped of his priesthood in November 2013 and then-Prosecutor John Molinelli blasted Myers and the archdiocese in a statement saying they made no effort to adhere to the terms of the agreement.

Myers, in response, sacked his second in command, Monsignor John E. Doran, saying it was part of a series of reforms meant to “strengthen internal protocols” and “ensure we are doing everything we can to safeguard the children of our community.”

Myers was ordained in his home state of Illinois and made bishop of Peoria, Illinois in 1990. Pope John Paul II appointed him as archbishop of Newark in October 2001. He retired in 2016 after hitting the mandatory retirement age of 75.