NEW JERSEY
The Record
WEDNESDAY, MAY 29, 2013
BY JEFF GREEN
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD
The lawyer for Michael Fugee, a priest accused of violating a ban on ministering to children, said Tuesday that even though a high-ranking Newark Archdiocese official resigned last week over “failures” in supervising the cleric, the official had not been in charge of monitoring him.
Attorney Michael D’Alessio said an agreement that prohibited Fugee’s involvement with children contained no provision for vicar general John E. Doran to supervise the priest. In fact, nothing in the agreement — signed by Fugee, the archdiocese and the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office — addressed the question of who would watch to be sure Fugee obeyed the agreement, the lawyer said.
Newark Archbishop John J. Myers has faced a torrent of criticism since the revelation that Fugee, despite the agreement, attended youth retreats throughout New Jersey. Fugee was convicted in 2003 of groping a teenage boy when he was an assistant pastor in Wyckoff, but the verdict was overturned because of a judicial error. He was arrested last week and charged with seven counts of violating a judicial order by hearing confessions from children.
Several prominent Democratic politicians and some Catholics have called for Myers’ resignation. They say Myers should not have returned Fugee to the ministry in 2009.
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