• Clergy abuse survivors and their advocates praised Camden Bishop Joseph Williams for ending the diocese’s legal challenge to a proposed grand jury investigation.
• Bishop Joseph Williams said the reversal was a message to victims and a step to “restore their faith.”
• The New Jersey Supreme Court is still considering the diocese’s arguments over the validity of the grand jury and could still rule against the Attorney General’s Office.

[Redacted]’s eyes widened in disbelief as he read the message from his bishop.

Joseph A. Williams, recently appointed leader of the Catholic Diocese of Camden, said on May 7 that the diocese would drop its four-year-old legal fight against a statewide investigation of clergy sexual abuse. Williams said he’d informed the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office of “our desire to be partners with them in this public service.”

It was a startling reversal coming just days after diocese lawyers argued before the state Supreme…