How does Catholic Church watch four ex-priests accused of abuse? It’s not an easy endeavor – NorthJersey.com

Four men are are being monitored by the Newark Archdiocese under unclear circumstances

Some have died. Others have been removed from the priesthood. And many have retired and have moved about the country.

But there are at least four unidentified ex-priests, who have likely molested children, who are being watched by church authorities under unclear circumstances.

Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin, the Roman Catholic archbishop of Newark, said last week that the archdiocese is monitoring at least four ex-priests who were removed from the ministry. The men, all in their 80s, are living in an undisclosed retirement home and “don’t have free rein of their lives,” he said.

Tobin’s comments were made as the Newark Archdiocese, which oversees churches in Bergen, Essex, Hudson and Union counties, posted a list of priests and deacons who have been credibly accused of sexually abusing children over decades. The list includes a total of 63 names, 33 of them priests who are deceased. Some of the priests had one victim, according to the list, but 33 had multiple victims. Eight of the living priests, all of whom are alleged to have abused more than one person, have been defrocked.

The rest of the state’s five dioceses, in Paterson, Metuchen, Trenton and Camden, posted their lists shortly after Newark. The Paterson Diocese put up a list of 28 clerics — including one priest who was also listed by Newark. Camden’s had 57 names, Trenton had 30 and Metuchen had 11.

One church official says it can be nearly impossible to track priests once they leave the ministry. And a former Bergen County prosecutor, who once seized oversight of one such cleric from the archdiocese, said it’s often a question of will, not ability.

“This is a major corporation; they had every resource at their disposal to know the whereabouts of their staff members,” said John Molinelli, the former Bergen County prosecutor.

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His office took over the monitoring of the Rev. Michael Fugee, who was removed from ministry after the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office charged him with violating an agreement that he never again work with children. Molinelli took over the monitoring five years ago because he did not trust church officials to watch him.

Archbishop John Myers, Tobin’s predecessor as head of the Newark Archdiocese, had allowed Fugee to continue wearing the priestly collar and to live in a church rectory even after he confessed to fondling a 13-year-old boy at the Church of St. Elizabeth of Hungary in Wyckoff and was convicted in 2003 of aggravated criminal sexual contact.

Fugee recanted his confession, and the charges were dismissed on a technicality — they were overturned by an appellate panel of judges who determined that the trial judge made an error in instructing the jury.

Prosecutors did not retry Fugee, but they had him sign an agreement saying he would no longer work with children. Fugee later admitted to violating that agreement.

“I never believed he just slipped through the cracks and they didn’t know,” Molinelli said.

It’s unclear whether the way church officials shadow accused clerics differs from diocese to diocese.

The Paterson Diocese, which oversees churches in Passaic, Morris and Sussex counties, instead uses clerics’ pension checks as a tether — the payments stop if the accused don’t tell the diocese where they are moving, said Kenneth Mullaney, the diocese’s attorney. 

Mullaney said 16 of the 28 clerics Paterson listed as having been credibly accused have already died. The whereabouts of one, a former deacon named Carlos Guzman, are unknown.

The remaining 11 are alive but have been permanently removed from the ministry, Mullaney said. Two have been laicized, or defrocked, and six have left the state or country altogether.

The church can track those who take a pension, Mullaney said. And when they decide to relocate, the diocese calls the local bishop to tell them the priest is moving in.

But the diocese’s hands are tied if the priest did not qualify for a pension when he left, Mullaney said. 

“If someone moves to Florida or Georgia, and is not collecting a pension, what control do we possibly have over them?” he said. “We have absolutely, positively no legal control over those priests.”

How the four men Tobin mentioned are monitored is unclear as well. 

Maria Margiotta, an archdiocese spokeswoman, declined to say what Tobin’s statement meant, or what kind of oversight the church provided. In an emailed statement, Margiotta said the men were stripped of priestly rights, precluded from any ministry and from earning any income in connection with any ministry.

“In this condition, they either become wards of the state or a responsibility of the church, in which case, the Archdiocese of Newark provides supervision and oversight,” the statement said. “Any Archdiocesan clergy with a credible allegation of sexual abuse of a minor has been removed from ministry and is required to live a life of prayer and penance.” 

Staff Writers Mike Kelly and Deena Yellin contributed to this article.

Email: janoski@northjersey.com

 

 

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