Former Newark Archbishop sexually abused 5-year-old in church rectory, lawsuit claims – NJ.com

A former Newark resident went to the Archdiocese of Newark last year with an explosive claim.

In 1976, Newark Archbishop Peter Leo Gerety befriended her family and sexually abused her on multiple times in his bedroom in the church rectory when she was 5 years old, she said.

“Do not say anything about this because it will hurt your mother,” she recalled Gerety, then the highest ranking church official in New Jersey, saying. “This is our secret.”

The New Jersey Independent Victim Compensation Program, a board created by the Catholic Church to settle abuse claims out of court, reviewed the woman’s allegations last year, her attorney said. The panel told the woman it could not find any evidence to independently verify her claims of abuse by the well-known archbishop, who died five years ago.

But the compensation board offered her a settlement — $5,000.

The woman turned down the church’s offer and filed a $50 million lawsuit in March alleging Gerety’s sexual abuse led to a lifetime of mental health issues. Her suit, filed in Essex County Superior Court, is believed to be the first to claim one of New Jersey’s best known and longest-serving Catholic targeted a child for abuse.

The lawsuit was first reported by NorthJersey.com.

Gerety — who died as the world’s oldest Catholic bishop at 104 in 2016 — has previously been named in numerous lawsuits for allegedly covering up for or failing to remove priests in the Archdiocese of Newark who sexually abused children during his tenure.

Gerety is not on any of the lists released by Catholic dioceses detailing priests who have previously been “credibly accused” of sexual abuse of children.

Archdiocese of Newark officials declined to comment on the woman’s lawsuit, which names the archdiocese, Gerety’s estate, the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart, its school and other church entities.

“It would be inappropriate to discuss or comment on matters in litigation, but it’s important to note that the Archdiocese of Newark remains fully committed to transparency and to our long-standing programs to protect the faithful and will continue to work with victims, their legal representatives and law enforcement authorities in an ongoing effort to resolve allegations and bring closure to victims,” said Sean Quinn, a spokesman for the archdiocese.

The case is headed to court partly because the Catholic Church independent compensation board’s settlement offer of $5,000 was “grotesquely low,” said John Baldante, the woman’s attorney.

“They hid under the cloak that they were unable to corroborate definitively the culpability of Bishop Gerety,” said Baldante, who has represented about 350 alleged sexual abuse victims in New Jersey. “Their default setting is just denial, denial, denial.”

The woman, now 49 and living in Pennsylvania, is not named in the lawsuit. She is identified by the pseudonym, “Clara Doe.”

She first met Gerety, then a newly appointed archbishop, when he befriended her, her mother and older sister when they were parishioners at Sacred Heart Cathedral in Newark, according to an affidavit provided by her attorney that she signed last month.

The archbishop would often bring food to the struggling family at their Broadway Avenue home. He volunteered to look after the 5-year-old when her mother, a seamstress, was at work, she said.

He eventually took the girl back to his bedroom in the rectory, where he touched her sexually and masturbated in front of her on three or four different occasions, she said.

“As a child, I misguidedly thought that God had specifically sent Archbishop Gerety to my Mom and family to rescue us and help us get food to eat. I felt I had no option other than to do as Archbishop Gerety instructed,” the woman said in her affidavit.

Eventually, she began to resist being alone with the priest and her mother sent the 5 year old to her aunt’s house instead. The woman said she did not tell anyone about the alleged abuse until she was 13 and confided in her sister, who is still alive and recalls the conversation, Baldante said.

Neither girl told their mother about the alleged abuse.

By the time she was in her 20s, the alleged victim was suicidal and in therapy, she said. She still takes medication for depression and has had lifelong problems with personal relationships.

Gerety was born in Connecticut in 1912. He was the oldest of nine sons, two of whom became Catholic priests.

He served for nearly three decades as a parish priest, mostly in Connecticut, where he worked extensively with immigrants and became known for his social justice and civil rights work.

He was appointed the Archbishop of Newark in 1974, overseeing more than a million Catholics in Essex, Union, Hudson and Bergen counties. He became known as one of the most progressive bishops in the country, encouraging a greater role for women in the church, marching for civil rights in Selma, Ala., and protesting the Vietnam War.

He retired in 1986 and was succeeded as Archbishop of Newark by future Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, who would eventually become the first Catholic cardinal to step down because of multiple allegations of sexual misconduct with young men and fellow priests.

Under a new law, New Jersey opened a two-year window in 2019 that allows nearly all sexual abuse victims to file civil lawsuits against institutions, including the Catholic Church, the Boy Scouts and other organizations where they were allegedly abused. The deadline to file civil suits is Nov. 30.

The Archdiocese of Newark and the four other dioceses in New Jersey funded the New Jersey Independent Victim Compensation Program to head off some of the lawsuits. The multi-million dollar program, which has since concluded, allowed alleged victims to file a claim detailing their allegations without going to court or making their names public.

The program offered victims voluntary settlements in exchange for agreeing not to take their cases to court. It is unclear how large the settlements were in New Jersey, but a similar program in New York offered some victims up to $500,000.

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Kelly Heyboer may be reached at kheyboer@njadvancemedia.com.