NEWARK (NJ)
NorthJersey
August 1, 2018
By Abbott Koloff
A former New Jersey priest is alleging that he was sexually assaulted decades ago by two clergymen who continued working in the Newark Archdiocese after church officials determined his accusations to be believable but unproven.
The Rev. Desmond Rossi, a Garwood native, made the explosive assertions during a recent interview in which he discussed his experiences decades ago with Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, then head of the Newark Archdiocese, when Rossi was a seminary student. He and other seminarians heard about McCarrick’s inappropriate behavior at the time, he said, underscoring questions about how church leaders dealt with sex abuse allegations.
In 1988, he said, he considered leaving the Newark Archdiocese because he felt uncomfortable around McCarrick, who resigned from the College of Cardinals last week after allegations surfaced that he had sexually abused boys and adult seminarians over the course of nearly five decades.
That same year, Rossi said, two friends who were about to become priests sexually assaulted him in a Newark church. He then sought to be transferred to the Albany Diocese, where he now works as an associate pastor at a church in Glens Falls, New York.
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