NEW JERSEY
The Record
BY JEFF GREEN
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD
Saying New Jersey’s top Roman Catholic cleric should feel more “public pressure and public embarrassment” for protecting a priest charged with molesting a boy in 2001, state Senate President Stephen Sweeney on Friday discussed his reasons for joining politicians statewide to call on Newark Archbishop John J. Myers to resign.
Declaring “I’m a Catholic,” Sweeney this week said he came to believe that the archbishop must go as more details emerged about the Rev. Michael Fugee, a onetime assistant pastor at a Wyckoff parish, and how the archbishop returned him to ministry even after he was accused of groping a 13-year-old boy.
In a meeting with The Record’s editorial board Friday, Sweeney said he supports legislation to expand New Jersey’s statute of limitations on civil suits against sexual offenders and touted his role in enacting a law that monitors sex offenders with ankle bracelet tracking devices.
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