NEWARK (NJ)
The Record [Woodland Park NJ]
January 15, 2026
By Mark Crawford
Last April, the New Jersey Supreme Court finally cleared the way for the attorney general to resume an investigation into clergy sexual abuse — an investigation that was halted for seven years after the Catholic Diocese of Camden sued to block it. That lawsuit effectively stopped the Attorney General’s Office from carrying out a probe it had promised to victims and the public alike.
For survivors, the questions remain painfully unanswered:
What has happened to the promised investigation?
Why has it taken so long?
How many more victims must die — or take their own lives out of despair — before our leaders tell the truth about how our children were failed by powerful institutions and by the very systems meant to protect them?
Across the country, courts are beginning to confront these same failures. In New York, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts and other states, judges have acknowledged the willful stalling, lack of progress and insincere negotiations that have long defined institutional responses to clergy abuse litigation. In those cases, courts made a critical decision: They allowed at least some abuse claims to move forward.
The result was telling. Once the legal obstruction was removed and cases were permitted to proceed, these institutions— long resistant to accountability — suddenly came to the table. Settlement offers increased dramatically. Survivors were finally treated as credible claimants rather than obstacles to be delayed and worn down. Fewer cases dragged through court, and more victims received long-overdue acknowledgment and compensation.
New Jersey’s courts must allow clergy abuse cases to move forward
New Jersey’s courts must now show the same resolve. By allowing clergy abuse cases to move forward without endless procedural wrangling, New Jersey justices can put an end to the abusive legal tactics that have protected institutions at the expense of children and survivors.
Delay has not served justice; it has denied it.
Each year of inaction compounds the harm and deepens the message that institutional reputation matters more than human life.
Survivors are not asking for special treatment. They are asking for the chance to be heard — openly, honestly and without obstruction.
New Jersey lawmakers have finally cleared the way for victims to have their day in court. In 2006, the state eliminated “Charitable Immunity protections” for institutions that failed to protect children from sexual predators, and in 2019, lawmakers finally expanded Statute of Limitations laws. It is time for New Jersey’s judiciary to ensure that the abuse of the legal system ends so survivors of sexual abuse can finally have their day in court.
Mark Crawford is the New Jersey state director of SNAP, Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, a survivor of clergy abuse and a national advocate for victims of sexual abuse.