NEW JERSEY
Asbury Park Press
Written by
Amanda Oglesby
@OglesbyAPP
JACKSON — A national organization that represents victims of sexual abuse by priests has criticized the Diocese of Trenton for delaying notification to a local congregation about a resident priest’s sexting scandal.
The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, better known as SNAP, condemned the diocese’s yearlong delay between removing the Rev. Matthew Riedlinger from St. Aloysius Church in Jackson and notifying the congregation of the reason.
Riedlinger, 30, took a leave of absence from the priesthood after having a sexual cell phone text conversation with a man he reportedly thought was a 16-year-old boy.
After the diocese received initial complaints about Riedlinger’s inappropriate sexual conversations, he entered outpatient treatment, according to church leadership. In August 2012, the Diocese of Trenton removed him from his Jackson post after church officials learned that he continued to have sexual text conversations.
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