MORRIS TOWNSHIP (NJ)
North Jersey Record
July 29, 2019
By Abbott Koloff
Eight people have received settlements over the past year after bringing sex abuse lawsuits against St. Mary’s Abbey and the Order of St. Benedict of New Jersey, which runs the Delbarton School in Morris Township and previously ran a school at St. Elizabeth of Hungary Church in Linden.
One former teacher, a priest named Timothy Brennan, has been publicly accused of abuse by nine men and one woman.
The Benedictines are an international Roman Catholic monastic order who follow the teachings of St. Benedict, who was born in Italy more than 1,500 years ago. He is considered the father of Western monasticism.
St. Mary’s Abbey oversees Delbarton, an elite school for boys from seventh grade through high school. At least seven priests and two other monks of the abbey have been accused of sex abuse.
The abbey has declined to follow the lead of New Jersey’s five Roman Catholic dioceses, which have provided lists of priests credibly accused of sexual abuse.
It recently said in a statement that it was not prepared to release such a list, partly because it was “unable to comment on active litigation.” Most of the lawsuits are no longer active. At least 11 suits have been settled.
The statement said all complaints are first sent to the Morris County Prosecutor’s Office, and that the abbey is required to wait for law enforcement to complete its investigations before conducting its own reviews. “Once that work is complete, we will release a list of accused individuals,” it said.
Many of the complaints were made public years ago, and it’s not clear why the county prosecutor would still be looking at them. The Morris County Prosecutor’s Office said it would not comment on investigations that don’t result in criminal charges. In most cases involving abuse from decades ago, the criminal statute of limitations expired by the time law enforcement was contacted.
The following list of clerics associated with St. Mary’s Abbey and accused of sexual abuse has been compiled by NorthJersey.com and the USA TODAY NETWORK New Jersey from lawsuits, most of which have been settled, as well as previous statements by St. Mary’s Abbey and past news articles by the Network.
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