SOUTH ORANGE VILLAGE (NJ)
Politico [Arlington VA]
July 1, 2026
By Dustin Racioppi
The archbishop of Newark ordered the probe after POLITICO reporting that Monsignor Joseph Reilly did not properly report allegations.
Investigators hired by one of the country’s highest-ranking cardinals found that the new president of Seton Hall University did nothing wrong in responding to a sexual abuse allegation more than a decade ago.
A report released Wednesday by the law firm Ropes & Gray also concluded that findings from a previous investigation into clergy abuse inaccurately said Monsignor Joseph Reilly should have been removed from leadership and governing boards at the North Jersey-based university.
The newest findings effectively clear Reilly, who was elevated to the presidency of Seton Hall in 2024 following the resignation of Joseph Nyre, who later filed a whistleblower lawsuit against the university. Shortly after Reilly became president, POLITICO reported that he had been implicated in a 2019 investigation connected to allegations of sexual misconduct by Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, the longtime archbishop of Newark and Washington, D.C.
That reporting drew condemnation from state and federal lawmakers, including then-Rep. Mikie Sherrill, who is now New Jersey’s governor. It also led to a court ruling in a separate, sprawling clergy abuse case requiring Seton Hall to turn over internal documents it kept private for years. And it prompted the current archbishop of Newark, Cardinal Joseph Tobin, to hire Ropes & Gray to essentially investigate the 2019 investigation.
The Ropes & Gray report drew on “hundreds” of documents and several dozen interviews. Nyre, who was president at the time school leaders were informed of the initial findings about Reilly, was not interviewed but provided a statement to investigators. Nyre did not immediately comment because he hadn’t read the report.
After more than a yearlong investigation, the law firm confirmed that Reilly had been aware of an allegation of sexual abuse in 2012, when he was a seminary leader on campus. Reilly had investigated a seminarian complaint of sexual assault and dismissed the alleged abuser from the seminary. But Reilly did not report the incident to the university’s Title IX coordinator as required “because he was not aware that he was obligated to do so,” the report said.
“Monsignor Reilly acted promptly and substantively when the allegations were reported to him in 2012, though he did not follow Seton Hall’s prescribed reporting protocols — an error that, as the contemporaneous record reflects, was unintentional given that he had not been trained on the applicable policy,” it said.
Reilly acknowledged in a statement that he did not properly report the allegation but “at the time, I believed I had handled this in the right way.”
“I am fully committed to seeing our community thrive and continue to progress as one of the nation’s leading Catholic universities,” he said in a statement. “And I will continue to enlist my faith, my education and my experiences to do what is right to further foster a safe and nurturing environment in which all Setonians can flourish.”
The report also cites a second incident in 2014, in which a faculty member at a separate seminary was removed following allegations of inappropriate conduct against an adult member of the seminary. Reilly was not a leader at the seminary, however, and had no involvement or knowledge of the incident, according to the report.
Investigators also said that a pair of letters from a university task force in charge of disciplinary actions “were inaccurate” to recommend Reilly be removed from his position as rector of the school’s Immaculate Conception Seminary and from governing boards. They also said just one of the letters was sent to Reilly; the second was never finalized. Reilly was later trained and “understood the importance of timely reporting to the University,” according to the report.
Seton Hall and Tobin renewed their support for Reilly. Hank D’Alessandro, chair of the university’s board of regents, said the board is “fully confident in Monsignor Reilly’s values, abilities, and deep-rooted dedication to leading this University. We are pleased to be moving forward under his leadership.”
Tobin said: “Nothing in this thorough report changes my firm view that Monsignor Reilly is a good priest with formidable experience and a deep commitment to a Catholic institution serving the Church and the world. He is highly regarded across the Seton Hall community and has my full respect and confidence.”