NEW JERSEY
National Catholic Register
by JOAN FRAWLEY DESMOND 05/23/2013
NEWARK, N.J. — As the U.S. bishops marked the release of an annual report with “the fewest allegations and victims reported since the data collection for the annual reports began in 2004,” the May 20 arrest of a Newark, N.J., priest triggered headlines that fueled skepticism and frustration regarding the Church’s decade-long effort to protect children.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops issued the findings of the 2012 audit of diocesan compliance with the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People on May 9, as Newark’s The Star-Ledger published a series of articles on Father Michael Fugee. Father Fugee, a priest of the Archdiocese of Newark, resigned from ministry on May 2 and was arrested on May 20, charged with seven counts of contempt of a judicial order.
Father Fugee was accused of violating a 2007 judicial mandate to avoid any unsupervised contact with children, minister to children or hold any position in which children are involved. The judge’s order followed an appeal and request for retrial after the priest’s 2003 conviction for groping a teenage boy, a transgression he acknowledged.
According to the agreement, Father Fugee would be supervised by the archdiocese; however, a spokesman for Archbishop John Myers of Newark told reporters he had been unaware of the priest’s activities related to youth.
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