JOHN CHADWICK
Peter J. Osinski was finishing up his priestly training at St. Paul's Church in Clifton when he and the pastor, the Rev. Frank Rodimer, became friends.
The two, who met in the late Sixties, would go on to bigger and better things. Rodimer became the bishop of the Diocese of Paterson and Osinski became a priest in the Diocese of Camden.
"He had a great interest in pastoral ministry, and he was very successful at that," Rodimer said Wednesday.
The men stayed friends, meeting for two weeks at vacation homes at the Jersey shore almost every summer from the early Seventies until 1996. That friendship now has become an embarrassment to Rodimer, amid revelations that Osinski molested a young boy at the house.
Osinski is serving a 10-year prison sentence for abusing the boy, and Rodimer settled a lawsuit accusing him of negligence in not noticing the abuse.
In an interview Wednesday, Rodimer said he was shocked to learn of Osinski's actions and insisted he knew nothing about them.
"Something was going on under the roof that was horrendous," said Rodimer, who became the bishop in 1977. "And I didn't know what was going on." He described the summers with Osinski as almost a spiritual retreat.
"We prayed together every day, we said Mass together, and we talked about our pastoral experiences," he said.
Rodimer has declined to say how much the diocese had to pay to settle the lawsuit.
The suit attracted little notice when it was filed in Ocean County in 1998. But the episode is one of many stories coming to light amid the national sex abuse scandal involving the Catholic Church.
In court documents and interviews, a picture emerges of a disturbed priest and an unknowing bishop. The abuse took place between 1984 and 1996, both at the victim's home and at a vacation spot on Long Beach Island. In a deposition, Osinski said that on four or five occasions, Rodimer "was in his room asleep" while Osinski was in his own room having sexual contact with the boy.
Osinski also said Rodimer's room was down the hall from his own. But Osinski insisted during the deposition that Rodimer didn't know what was going on. The only times Rodimer may have witnessed Osinski and the victim physically close was when the two greeted each other with a hug, he said. One night - sometime in the mid-Nineties -Ÿ Rodimer, Osinski, and the victim went to see the movie "Sister Act." The victim told authorities that Osinski abused him after they returned home from the movie.
Rodimer said Wednesday he can't discuss any details because he and the other parties to the lawsuit are bound by confidentiality agreements. Still, he said the continued publicity is troubling.
"I hate the implications of this,'' he said. "There is nothing wrong with priests having friends and going on vacation."
Attorney Ken Mullaney, who represents the diocese, said Rodimer's settling of the case should not be construed as an admission of liability. And Mullaney said Rodimer cooperated with authorities. He released to The Record a form letter written in July 1998 from the Ocean County prosecutor's office thanking the bishop for his help and cooperation.
Neither Mullaney nor the victim's lawyer, Stephen Rubino, would discuss details of the case.
http://www.northjersey.com/cgi-bin/page.pl?id=3250450
Friday, June 28, 2002
The Passaic County Prosecutor's Office said Thursday that it won't bring criminal charges against 20 priests accused of sexual abuse during the past 41 years.
After a review of church files, the prosecutor's office determined many of the cases were too old to prosecute. Those that weren't had either already been tried, involved priests who are no longer alive or were dismissed because of "anonymous or vague information."
Acting Prosecutor Boris Moczula was supportive of the diocese in his statement, holding that "the few times" the diocese didn't report allegations of child abuse, "there was no evidence of criminal intent" and that in those instances, their lack of disclosure was "an attempt at honoring the victims' confidentiality."
Out of 26 allegations of abuse shared by the 20 priests, 20 were determined to be beyond the New Jersey statute of limitations, two priests were deceased, four had already been prosecuted and dismissed for insufficient evidence, and two others, Peter McBride and José Alonso, had already been prosecuted.
Alonso pleaded guilty to molesting two altar boys in 1987 at St. John's Cathedral in Paterson. McBride was removed from St Andrew the Apostle Church in Clifton in 1994 after a minor accused him of exposing himself and the priest later pleaded guilty to harassing two adult women.
Although they are not legally responsible, the priests will be subject to a review by the diocese. According to a new policy regarding clergy who abuse minors that was approved by Catholic bishops two weeks ago, allegations must now go through a Diocesan Review Board made up mostly of lay people. The board will first determine if the priests are guilty of abuse, and then if the priests should step down or retain their positions.
Although most of the allegations were found to be too old, Moczula pointed out that the limitation "does not rule out the possibility that some victims were sexually abused."
"The information will be helpful for us to make our administrative decision," said Marianna Thompson, a diocesan spokeswoman.
Moczula said he was planning to turn over all information his office had gathered to the diocese by next week.
"We are counting on the quality of evidence we are providing them to help them determine any administrative decisions they might decide to make."
http://www.njhn.com/page.php?level_1_id=1&page=4106869
I guess that vow of poverty went out the window the same time as the vow of chastity. I've been to Long Beach Island, and it's not cheap to rent a house there for the summer.