NEW JERSEY
The Jersey Journal
By Ron Zeitlinger/The Jersey Journal
on May 25, 2013
The archbishop of the Archdiocese of Newark has resisted calls for his resignation.
Instead, at churches across Hudson, Bergen and Essex counties this weekend, priests will read a letter from John J. Myers announcing the someone else in the archdiocese, Vicar General John Doran, is taking the blame — and taking it alone.
Fugee was charged last week with violating a lifetime ban on ministry to children by working with a Monmouth County youth group.
A jury convicted him in 2003 of aggravated criminal sexual contact, but three years later the verdict was overturned in appellate court. In that decision, the panel said that the trial judge should not have allowed jurors to hear the part of Fugee’s confession in which he questioned his sexual identity.
Fugee, 52, signed the agreement in July 2007 to avoid retrial on the groping charges. The archdiocese also signed onto the agreement, pledging to supervise the priest. Doran’s signature is on the document.
With the news of Doran’s demotion from a leadership position online, there is a new outcry for Myers to step forward and resign as well, with his critics saying that ultimately, this is his mess.
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