NEW JERSEY
The Record
SUNDAY MAY 26, 2013
BY JEFF GREEN
STAFF WRITER
Churchgoers in the Archdiocese of Newark on Sunday were read a letter written by Archbishop John J. Myers, who for the first time addressed a scandal in which a former Wyckoff assistant pastor has been charged with violating a ban on ministering to children.
And at three Bergen County churches — each where the Rev. Michael Fugee left footprints — parishioners gave the letter mixed reviews — some saying it was reassuring with others saying Myers should resign. Myers said in the letter — which had been made public late last week — and in a video on the archdiocese website that his top aide had resigned and the church would bolster its sex-abuse prevention policies.
Meanwhile, pastors of two Bergen County parishes where prosecutors say Fugee had heard confessions of children refused to discuss the allegations on Sunday — as they have since Fugee was arrested last Monday and charged with seven counts of violating a judicial order.
Prosecutors said then that Fugee heard children’s confessions twice last year at Sacred Heart Church in Rochelle Park, where archdiocese officials allowed him to live for two years, and once in December at Our Lady of Visitation in Paramus.
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