NEWARK (NJ)
Verdict - Legal Analysis and Commentary from Justia [Mountain View CA]
July 29, 2025
By Leslie C. Griffin
Abuse victims sacrifice a lot for many years. The subtitle of Dr. Robert Hoatson’s new book, The Sacrifice of the Masses, tells you a lot of his story: A Former Priest Turned Whistleblower Tells His Private Experience of Clergy Abuse & Cover-Up, What He Witnessed on the Inside, and What He’s Doing About It Now.
Hoatson is co-founder of Road-to-Recovery, an organization that helps abuse victims find their way. Over the years they have helped over 5,000 victims of abuse. They provide not only counseling, but also food and housing, to those in need of assistance. Hoatson was a client of Attorney Mitchell Garabedian of Boston, who worked devotedly on cases for victims. On the book’s cover is a recommendation by Thomas Doyle, another former priest who wrote the 1985 report that first warned the Catholic Church about the extent of abuse in the church.
The church, of course, did not listen to any of them.
Some of you may know Hoatson’s name from the New York cases he filed, testified in, and lost. His new book tells you details that the cases do not expose.
This book has strong statements and conclusions. Its first sentence says the “Roman Catholic Church is the most corrupt organization in the world, and it has been for centuries.” (xv). Hoatson sees corruption in the way the church has “soul murdered” (xvi) millions of children and adults in allowing their abuse. He says the church hierarchy lives in financial ease while ignoring the plight of the survivors.
He shares many names and stories in this book. His family, first cousin, friends, colleagues, and abusers appear throughout the volume. He tells how and why he took his time reporting the abuse that he suffered from youth on. Hoatson describes his abuse in his novitiate and scholasticate as a Christian Brother. The abuse was constant, but Hoatson explains why victims cannot always report what they go through and wait many years to complain about it.
Hoatson tells us about John J. Myers, the Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Newark. He notes that Myers stupidly banned eulogies by lay people at funerals, even though Hoatson knew how important and memorable they are.
Hoatson protested when pedophiles were moved into his ecclesiastical residence. But the church sided with the pedophiles, so Hoatson moved out. He constantly looked for places to live.
After leaving his life as a Christian Brother, Hoatson became a priest. After he testified in the New York Senate for abuse victims in favor of changing the statute of limitations, he was fired from his job as Director of Schools at a Catholic parish.
He later brought a lawsuit against this firing and other cases, most of which he lost.
In 2011, he was voluntarily laicized by the Vatican in “record” (205) time. “When they want you out, they move quickly. Archbishop Myers made sure of that.” (205)
Theodore McCarrick, the cardinal who was defrocked for his extensive abuse, appears throughout the book, always plaguing the people of New Jersey.
Hoatson mentions the significance of the revelation of Boston’s abuse. Kristen Lombardi of the Boston Phoenix interviewed him. Hoatson appeared on the front page of the Village Voice under the headline “Outing Cardinal Egan,” a story about Egan’s “special friend.” (167)
Therapists helped Hoatson with his long process of recovery. He suffered from Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome, and sometimes thought of suicide.
Hoatson was consistent in naming abusers. Eventually, he was awarded SNAP’s [Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests] 2019 award for service to sexual abuse victims. And he was finally honored by the Board of the Essex Catholic High School Alumni Association.
What about those cases he filed?
Judge Paul Crotty refused Hoatson’s motion to recuse from his case against the list of people who had fired him. Hoatson argued that the judge’s wife was involved in issues with the New York archdiocese and that she supported it and Cardinal Egan. His brother was representing the archdiocese in other cases, and the brother was President of the Guild of Catholic Lawyers, of which the court was a member. The Court of Appeals, in a panel of Judges Sonia Sotomayor, Richard C. Wesley, and J. Clifford Wallace, upheld the denial of recusal and also the $8,000 fine on Hoatson’s attorney, John A. Aretakis.
The panel reviewed Hoatson’s points about the judge’s wife and brother. They wrote: “Judge Crotty’s brother is President of the Catholic Lawyers Guild and a partner in a law firm that represents the Archdiocese of New York in other litigation. Just as Judge Crotty’s involvement in the Catholic Lawyers Guild does not create an appearance of impropriety, nor do his brother’s activities in that organization. Any pecuniary interest that Judge Crotty’s brother may have in the instant litigation by virtue of his status as a partner in a law firm that represents the Archdiocese in other litigation is too “remote, contingent, indirect or speculative” to lead a reasonable person to question Judge Crotty’s impartiality.… Finally, Judge Crotty’s wife is employed by a communications company that represents a community group seeking to preserve a particular church in New York City that the Archdiocese wants to demolish. This alleged interest is not only adverse to the Archdiocese, it is also too “remote,” “indirect,” and “speculative” to create any appearance of impropriety by Judge Crotty.” I can see why Hoatson was disappointed with this ruling, which doesn’t seem to capture the conflict he was seriously worried about.
Judge Crotty then dismissed Hoatson’s RICO and Title VII cases against the New York Archdiocese, Edward Egan, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany, Howard J. Hubbard, the Newark Archdiocese, John J. Myers, the Congregation of Christian Brothers, John O’Brien, Laurence Boschetto, and Paul Kevin Hennessy. The opinion said loss of employment for reporting was not a sufficient injury to give Hoatson RICO standing, and his firing was not caused by a predicate act. On the Title VII case, Hoatman had not exhausted his administrative remedies before filing it. It was not filed in time and “would nonetheless fail because Title VII does not apply to claims of discrimination based on sexual orientation.” Judge Crotty refused to take supplemental jurisdiction over the state law claims of “1) violation of New Jersey statutory whistleblower laws; 2) intentional infliction of emotional distress; 3) tortious interference with employment; 4) sexual abuse; 5) breach of fiduciary duty; 6) negligence; and 7) hostile work environment” and dismissed them without prejudice.
The state appeals court later dismissed those claims, focusing on New Jersey’s Conscientious Employee Protection Act [CEPA]. The court did not reach the issue of whether the ministerial exception, which bars lawsuits by ministers against their employers, applied to that act. CEPA failed because the actions complained of, Hoatson’s retaliatory firing, did not take place in New Jersey. The rest of Hoatson’s claims were time-barred, so the ministerial exception defense was not reached.
And his testimony in other cases? The court said his affidavits about who is a church employee were not based on personal knowledge but instead contained propositions that were not sufficient to prove that the defendant was an employee. Lyman v. Genevive, 70 Mass. App. Ct. 1114 (2007) (unpublished). It then ruled that his information about Cardinal Egan’s beliefs on employment was “nothing but speculation.” It also concluded that he did not have standing to protest sanctions against his attorney because he was not a party to the case, nor did he have a legally protected interest to be represented by a suspended attorney. His testimony about what the Defendant knew encroached upon the jury’s role. He offered “no facts” that Defendant was on notice of Abuser’s abuse. He could not testify that a priest who never worked in New York could have known that Cardinal Egan knew the abuser. Hoatson’s opinions about Egan’s knowledge of the abuser would not be admissible at trial because of no factual basis and usurpation of the jury’s and the court’s roles.
Hoatson thinks his RICO case would have turned out better in 2017 or 2018 because by then, many people were describing the Church as the “Mafia.” As I read the Title VII case, I was reminded of Justice Neil Gorsuch’s opinion in Bostock v. Clayton County, which says Title VII does not allow discrimination based on sexual orientation.
Reading the book and the case law makes us see that Hoatson sacrificed a lot to make the lives of victims better.
Dr. Leslie C. Griffin is the William S. Boyd Professor of Law at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas Boyd School of Law. Prof. Griffin, who teaches constitutional law and bioethics, is known for her interdisciplinary work in law and religion.