NEW JERSEY
The Record
BY JEFF GREEN
STAFF WRITER | THE RECORD
In what might be the first formal complaint to a new Vatican tribunal, an advocacy group for clergy sexual abuse victims on Wednesday called for an investigation of Newark Archbishop John J. Myers and his handling of child molestation cases spanning three decades.
Eight members of Catholic Whistleblowers, a national group of church reformists, said they would be filing an 80-page document detailing Myers’ actions in various cases in Newark and at his former diocese in Peoria, Illinois. On Wednesday, they hand-delivered a copy of their grievances to Myers’ spokesman at the Newark chancery and said they would send another to the Vatican’s top U.S. diplomat in the coming days.
The group is aiming to get the attention of a tribunal set up by Pope Francis in June to hold bishops accountable for covering up or failing to take action against sexually abusive priests.
It was unknown on Wednesday whether the tribunal, housed in the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, had received any other cases for its review, but the activists said they believed their complaint was among the first, if not the first, to be presented publicly.
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