Posted on 04/30/2013 4:05:01 PM PDT by Alex Murphy
NEWARK, N.J. (RNS) Amid calls for a Vatican investigation, Newark Archbishop John J. Myers is facing fierce criticism for his handling of a priest who attended youth retreats and heard confessions from minors in defiance of a court-ordered lifetime ban on ministry to children.
At St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Colts Neck, where the Rev. Michael Fugee had been spending time with a youth group, angry parishioners said they were never told about Fugee’s background, and they questioned Myers’ defense of the priest, the subject of a lengthy story in The Star-Ledger.
“It’s complete craziness that the church can let this happen,” said John Santulli, 38, a father of two at St. Mary’s. “I’m a softball coach, and I need a background check just to get on the field. Every single person I spoke to today said, ‘Oh my God. I didn’t know about this.’ It’s incomprehensible.”
Fugee, 52, is a priest of the Archdiocese of Newark and under Myers’ supervision. His work at St. Mary’s, however, was in the neighboring Diocese of Trenton, where Bishop David O’Connell has ordered the pastor of St. Mary to bar Fugee from any church activities, a spokeswoman said in a statement.
The bishop of the neighboring Diocese of Paterson, Arthur Serratelli, has likewise said Fugee was on a retreat at Lake Hopatcong without his permission.
For the first time in his many years as an advocate for victims of clergy sex abuse, Mark Crawford, state director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, called on the archbishop to resign, characterizing Fugee as the latest in a string of problem priests shielded by Myers.
“The archbishop continues to insist it’s fine for Fugee to work with children. It’s a very dangerous message,” Crawford said. “When will it be enough? When someone gets hurt? What does it take when you have a man who has admitted groping a child on more than one occasion?”
The Star-Ledger, too, called for Myers to step down in an editorial, saying the archbishop “has shown a pattern of leniency toward pedophiles, indifference to potential victims, and a haughty disdain for those who dare to question his judgment.”
Fugee was convicted in 2003 of criminal sexual contact for allegedly fondling a 14-year-old boy’s genitals on two occasions. Three years later, an appellate court vacated the verdict, ruling the trial judge should not have allowed jurors to hear the part of Fugee’s confession in which he described himself as homosexual or bisexual.
The rest of the confession was not called into question.
Rather than retry Fugee, prosecutors allowed him to enter a rehabilitation program for first-time offenders, on the condition that he undergo counseling for sex offenders and sign an agreement barring him from any work in which children are involved. The archdiocese’s vicar general, on behalf of Myers, signed the agreement as well.
Yet The Star-Ledger found Fugee has apparently violated that pledge with impunity, attending retreats and hearing confessions and traveling with members of the St. Mary youth group to Canada.
Jim Goodness, a spokesman for Myers, denied Fugee had broken the agreement because he was under the supervision of other priests and St. Mary’s two youth ministers, who are longtime friends with the priest.
“Father Fugee remains a priest who is allowed to be in ministry,” Goodness said Monday (April 29). “There is no change in his status at this point.”
Prosecutors have now launched an investigation into Fugee’s activities; that probe remains underway. If he is found to have violated the agreement, Fugee could face civil penalties, criminal charges or both, said Assistant Bergen County Prosecutor Demetra Maurice, assistant chief of the special victims unit.
Others are calling on the Vatican to launch an investigation of its own.
The Rev. James Connell, an influential Wisconsin priest who has pressed the church for greater transparency on issues of sexual abuse, emailed a letter to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican office that has dealt with the abuse crisis in the Roman Catholic Church.
Connell, a canon lawyer and the former vice chancellor of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, asked for an investigation into whether Myers violated canon law by failing to notify Rome of the abuse allegations against Fugee.
Connell also questioned whether Fugee should have been returned to ministry at all given the priest’s initial confession and then his willingness to enter the rehabilitation program. Connell calls that decision another admission of wrongdoing.
“The truth in this crisis has to come to light or we will never have true justice,” Connell said in a telephone interview. “We cannot expect there to be healing for the victims and survivors if we do not have that truth.”
The controversy has stirred the ire of rank-and-file Catholics with no connection to Fugee or St. Mary’s parish. Carolann Aschoff, a family attorney from Roseland, N.J., fired off her own letter to Pope Francis and started an online petition demanding Fugee’s reassignment and other measures for greater accountability and supervision in the church.
“Ignoring the agreement they made — ignoring common sense, ignoring prudence, ignoring the protection of children — is really beyond belief,” Aschoff said. “They’re being reckless, and no one should be reckless with children.”
Still protecting your pedos, eh???
But they've shown they won't do that and so the secular authorities must step in. If this story is true, this bishop belongs in jail for reckless child endangerment and whatever else they can throw at him. Start throwing the bishops in jail and we won't be hearing about priests who've fondled 14 year old boys still in active ministry.
The bishops are guilty of child endangerment and they do deserve to be in jail. Here in Philadelphia Cardinal Bevilacqua would've been jailed if he had been of sound mind by the time his henchman, Msgr. Lynn, was indicted.
“And they don’t mind the protestant and other non Catholic clergy who molest children.”
So, is the Eucharist offered by a pedophile priest still the actual body of Christ? Just wondering.
The enabler, the protectors, those who could take corrective action but didn’t, these are by Catholic teaching guilty also. Who is going to go after them? Obviously no one.
Oh I’m aware of the non-Catholic abuse, but as a Catholic, I am especially offended by these fag priests.
yes
That hasn’t even happened with any bishops. Cardinal Mahoney got a slap on the wrist and a strongly worded letter from his successor. Mahoney still got to go to Rome and participate in the Conclave. Cardinal Law got a cushy retirement in Rome.
I’d like Pope Francis to do something symbolic to one of these guys. I was really disappointed that the whole Pope Francis - Cardinal Law kerfuffle turned out to be a debunked tabloid myth. I think that Papa Bergoglio has a hard edge under the whole sweet elderly man who likes kissing babies and giving extemporaneous sermons persona. I wouldn’t want to get on his bad side and it would do the Church good if the not nice and merciful version of Papa Bergoglio dealt with a few of these bishops.
The Church should have always turned these guys over to the secular authorities. The Church doesn’t have a jail or a penal code. There are two prongs.. First, pedophile priests should be defrocked or even excommunicated (in the Maciel case an excommunication was warranted). Second, there should be punishment for bishops who knowingly cover up the abuses.
“yes”
I guess you should hope that he at least washed his hands first!
I agree with you, but our bishops have shown us time and again that they're not willing to act forcefully. They'll change their tune if their brother bishops start sitting in jail.
You are very right. Mr. Mahony should currently be enjoying a stint at Club Fed. But the Church cannot try and convict someone. However, it can and should give out harsher punishments. For instance, Mahoney should have been stripped of his rank of cardinal.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.