Survivors Say NJ’s List of Abusive Clergy Leaves Many Unanswered Questions

NEW YORK (NY)
WNYC Radio

February 14, 2019

New Jersey’s bishops have released the names of nearly 200 priests who were “credibly accused” of child sex abuse. But according to survivors who spoke with WNYC, the lists raise almost as many questions as they answer.

For instance, priests who are currently under investigation aren’t included. Some of the dioceses list priests who abused “multiple” victims, but don’t offer specific numbers. Four of the five dioceses fail to disclose the dates of when abusive priests were removed from ministry.

And Mark Crawford, the New Jersey coordinator for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), says there’s another key piece of information that’s missing.

“They failed to disclose what they knew and when,” Crawford said. “As a victim, it’s part of your healing. You want to know. You have a need [and] an appetite for that information.”

Through Crawford’s extensive network of survivors in New Jersey, he estimates at least 100 clergy are missing from the lists, including the priest who repeatedly raped Fred Marigliano and his little brothers over the course of several years in the 1950’s and 60’s. That’s because their abuser was from a religious order, like the Jesuits, the Franciscans and, in their case, the Society of St. Paul. A spokesperson for Newark’s Archdiocese says priests from religious orders aren’t included on the dioceses’ list because the orders are supposed to police themselves.

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