NEW JERSEY
Waiting for Godot to Leave
So you want to be the Archbishop of Newark, New Jersey, do you? (See Bad Bishops: Same Old Spin – Different Day). Submit your resume and answer the question below.
Given the following scenario …
A priest under your control and care admits to having homosexual or bisexual desires.
This priest likes to wrestle with 14-year-old boys. Let me repeat that: this priest likes to wrestle with 14-year-old boys.
This priest admits that while wrestling with a 14-year-old boy, he grabbed his genitals, on two different occasions. The second time he did so, the boy became enraged and refused to talk to the priest the rest of the day, at an event for the boy’s family.
The priest is indicted, tried and convicted on a charge of aggravated sexual conduct. The conviction is overturned on a technicality. The appellate court orders a retrial.
To avoid a retrial, you strike a deal with prosecutors, agreeing to remove said priest from any ministry involving youth and from any contact with youth.
Years pass. Now what do you do? Do you ….
A. Blow off the deal with prosecutors and allow your priest back into youth ministry and unsupervised contact with youth, without telling any of the parents this priest’s history?
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