WOODLAND PARK (NJ)
North Jersey Record
February 15, 2019
By Mike Kelly
The Roman Catholic prelate who was the driving force behind the dramatic release on Wednesday of the names of nearly 200 New Jersey priests who abused children has a curious way of describing his role.
“I’m in sales. I’m not in management,” Cardinal Joseph Tobin, the head of the Newark Archdiocese and its 1.3 million Catholics, said in interview with NorthJersey.com and the USA Today Network New Jersey.
“I don’t think anything is beyond the grace of God,” he added. “So we have to do our best and trust that God can do what only God can do.”
Tobin’s remarks, in response to questions about how he might reset Catholicism’s moral compass after years of reports of sex abuse by priests, echoed a classic God-is-really-in-charge belief that has long been a cornerstone of Judeo-Christian theology.
But his description of himself as a salesman offers an additional glimpse into the daunting task he faces in trying to cleanse his church of the taint of sexual abuse while also remaining a credible voice on such progressive issues as economic reform and fair treatment for immigrants.
“We’re working for justice. We’re working for healing,” said Tobin, an unabashed political progressive, in pointing out his dual roles as reformer within the church and amid the outside world.
But for all his buoyant confidence, Tobin conceded what plenty of research studies have already discovered in the wake of Catholicism’s long running sex abuse scandal. “The bishops in this country,” he said, “have lost credibility.”
Wednesday’s publication by New Jersey’s five Catholic dioceses of 188 names of priests and deacons who had been “credibly accused” of molesting children during the last eight decades was part of an attempt for more transparency by American Catholic officials after years of stubborn secrecy that had eroded trust in the church.
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