NEW JERSEY
CentralJersey.com

Parishioners of St. Joseph Parish in Hillsborough learned Sunday that their longtime pastor, Msgr. Raymond L. Cole, has been cleared by an ecclesiastical tribunal of charges of sexual abuse of a minor more than three decades ago.

Msgr Cole was removed from the parish in late October 2013 because of an allegation he sexually abused a minor in the late 1970s when he was assigned as an associate pastor at St. Mary Parish in South Amboy.

A tribunal of three priests from outside the Diocese of Metuchen recently returned a verdict of not guilty. The tribunal is deemed expert in the church’s law and experienced in the church’s judicial process.

“I am satisfied that they conducted the trial in an impartial and professional manner,” the Most Rev. Paul G. Bootkoski, the bishop of Metuchen, wrote in a letter read to parishioners Sunday.

“While there can be…