NEW JERSEY
Daily Mail (UK)
Catholic diocese claims priest was ‘off duty’ when he molested boy as they attempt to deflect responsibility for sex crimes
By ASHLEY COLLMAN
PUBLISHED: 15:48 EST, 2 June 2014
The Catholic diocese of Trenton, New Jersey says it wasn’t responsible for a teenage boy’s molestation because the priest was ‘off duty’ at the time of the abuse.
Victim Chris Naples claims Reverend Terence McAlinden, now 73, sexually assaulted him hundreds of times over the course of a decade, starting when he was just 13 years old.
Now 42, Naples is suing the diocese in Mercer County since other church leaders knew about the abuse and did nothing.
Naples previously lost a suit against the diocese in Delaware, where some of the abuse allegedly took place. It was during that case that attorneys for the diocese used the controversial argument that they couldn’t be held responsible for Rev McAlinden’s actions, because abusing a child is not part of a priest’s ‘duties’.
‘How do we determine when a priest is and is not on duty?’ one of the justices asked.
‘Well, you can determine a priest is not on duty when he is molesting a child, for example,’ the diocese lawyer responded. ‘A priest abusing a child is absolutely contrary to the pursuit of his master’s business, to the work of a diocese.’
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