Assignment Record – Rev. Terence O. “Fr. Mac” McAlinden

NEW JERSEY
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: Terence McAlinden was ordained a priest of the Trenton diocese in 1967. He did parish work for several years in Sayerville and Trenton before becoming Director of the diocese’s Catholic Youth Organization, a position he held for almost two decades.The CYO was headquartered in Keyport. In 1988 McAlinden was assigned as pastor to St. Theresa’s in Tuckerton. The parish moved to a building in Little Egg Harbor in 2006.

In September 2007 McAlinden was removed from active ministry after an allegation surfaced that he had sexually abused a boy in the 1980s and 1990s, beginning when the boy was age 13. In 2011 two other men alleged publicly that McAlinden sexually abused them as teenagers, one in 1969 and the other from 1980-1985. This accuser said his abuse was reported to the diocese in 1989, and that he received a settlement in 1992 and was made to sign a confidentiality agreement. Diocesan officials claimed in 2011 that there was no record of this. In October 2014 the diocese settled a lawsuit with a fourth man who claimed McAlinden sexually abused him over a three-year period in the 1980s, beginning when the man was 14 years old.

Ordained: 1967

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.