State senator calls for Newark Archbishop to step aside, calls handling of priest 'sickening'

by Sol Reform 5 Replies latest social current

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  Sol Reform

  What's the problem? Jehovah Witnesses allow it?

  http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2013/04/state_senator_calls_for_newark.html

  State senator calls for Newark Archbishop to step aside, calls handling of priest 'sickening'
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  By Mark Mueller/The Star-Ledger
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  on April 30, 2013 at 5:02 PM, updated April 30, 2013 at 11:26 PM
  
  
  
  Newark Archbishop John J. Myers, seen here in a file photo, has faced increasing scrutiny over his handling of the Rev. Michael Fugee.
  Jennifer Brown/The Star-Ledger
  
  
  Declaring "enough is enough," a state senator this afternoon called on Newark Archbishop John J. Myers to step down, at least temporarily, while authorities investigate his supervision of a priest who has worked with children despite a binding agreement barring such interaction.
  
  Sen. Joseph Vitale (D-Middlesex) said Myers' handling of the Rev. Michael Fugee displays "arrogance" and defies common sense as the Roman Catholic church tries to regain the trust of parishioners in the wake of the clergy sex abuse crisis.
  
  "Based on everything that's happened, not just in New Jersey but around the country and the world, you have to follow the spirit of the law, and they have not done that in this case," said Vitale, who has pushed for laws that aid victims of sexual abuse.
  
  "Zero tolerance is zero tolerance," Vitale added. "It's not subject to someone's interpretation or whim. There's a potential for this person to reoffend, and if there's any potential for that to happen, they just can't be there. Being around children at all is just patently unacceptable."
  
  Fugee, the former assistant pastor of the Church of St. Elizabeth in Wyckoff, was charged in 2001 with criminal sexual contact after confessing to police that he fondled the genitals of a teenage boy on two occasions. A jury convicted him in 2003.
  The Rev. Michael Fugee participates in a prayer circle with teens and adults during a pilgrimage to Canada in 2010.
  Facebook Photo
  
  
  An appellate panel ordered a new trial in 2006, ruling the judge gave improper instruction to jurors. Rather than retry the priest, the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office allowed him to enter a rehabilitation program for first-time offenders on the condition he undergo counseling for sex offenders and agree to the terms of a memorandum of understanding.
  
  The binding agreement explicitly states Fugee may have no unsupervised contact with children, minister to children or work in any position in which children are involved.
  
  But the Sunday Star-Ledger found that Fugee has attended youth retreats in Marlboro and at Lake Hopatcong through St. Mary Parish in Colts Neck, where is longtime friends with the church's youth ministers, Michael and Amy Lenehan.
  
  Fugee also has traveled with members of the youth group to Canada. The trips took place in 2010 and 2012.
  
  Witnesses said he frequently heard confessions from minors behind closed doors on the trips, and Facebook photos show him smiling with teenage boys and girls.
  
  A spokesman for Myers has said the archdiocese interpreted the agreement with the prosecutor's office to mean Fugee could have contact with children as long as he is under supervision.
  
  Vitale was critical of that stance, stating Myers is parsing words and ignoring both the letter and spirit of the agreement.
  The Rev. Michael Fugee poses with Michael and Amy Lenehan, longtime friends and the youth ministers at St. Mary parish in Colts Neck. This photo was taken during an annual pilgrimage to Canada.
  Facebook Photo
  
  
  "In my view and the view of many others, the agreement has been violated," he said, calling Fugee's presence among children and the archdiocese's stance "sickening."
  
  Myers' spokesman, Jim Goodness, declined comment this afternoon.
  
  The prosecutor's office, meanwhile, continues to investigate the apparent violation. The agency immediately launched a probe when The Star-Ledger made inquiries late last week.
  
  Vitale joins a growing number of people critical of the archbishop, who answers only to the Vatican in Rome.
  
  On Monday, the New Jersey director of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, a national advocacy group, called for Myers' resignation. Rank-and-file Catholics from across the archdiocese have requested the same in interviews and letters.
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  Sol Reform

  State Senate President Stephen Sweeney on Friday discussed his reasons for joining politicians statewide to call on Newark Archbishop John J. Myers to resign.

  http://www.northjersey.com/community/religion/Sweeney_says_Newark_archbishop_should_be_embarrassed_over_handling_of_priest_sex_abuse_accusations.html

  Sweeney blasts Newark archbishop over handling of priest sex abuse accusations
  Friday, May 10, 2013 Last updated: Saturday May 11, 2013, 12:09 AM
  BY JEFF GREEN
  STAFF WRITER
  The Record
  Pages: 1 2 3 > display on one page | Print | E-mail
  
  Saying New Jersey’s top Roman Catholic cleric should feel more “public pressure and public embarrassment” for protecting a priest charged with molesting a boy in 2001, state Senate President Stephen Sweeney on Friday discussed his reasons for joining politicians statewide to call on Newark Archbishop John J. Myers to resign.
  
  DON SMITH/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
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  State Senate President Stephen Sweeney, D-Gloucester, meeting with the Record's editorial board on Friday.
  
  Declaring “I’m a Catholic,” Sweeney this week said he came to believe that the archbishop must go as more details emerged about the Rev. Michael Fugee, a onetime assistant pastor at a Wyckoff parish, and how the archbishop returned him to ministry even after he was accused of groping a 13-year-old boy.
  
  In a meeting with The Record’s editorial board Friday, Sweeney said he supports legislation to expand New Jersey’s statute of limitations on civil suits against sexual offenders and touted his role in enacting a law that monitors sex offenders with ankle bracelet tracking devices.
  
  Sweeney, D-Gloucester, also said he would back a boycott of Sunday collections for the diocese during Mass, saying parishioners should consider withholding their dollars and sending written messages of protest to church leaders instead.
  
  In another Friday development, the Diocese of Trenton issued a message on its website that says Fugee, who attended youth ministry events in one of its parishes without permission, committed a “serious breach of compliance with our child protection policies.” The diocese’s message, which followed a similar one issued Wednesday by the Paterson Diocese on its website, urged victims of clergy sex abuse to report any allegations to the diocesan abuse hotline.
  
  But victims’ advocates sharply criticized the two dioceses for their handling of the Fugee case, declaring that the recent statements were “more about looking good than being good” and were attempts to “play gatekeeper and screen child sex abuse reports” instead of referring potential victims directly to law enforcement.
  
  “They want victims and witnesses to come to church officials first, giving them the chance to destroy evidence, fabricate alibis, intimidate victims, threaten witnesses, discredit whistle-blowers and start their extensive and expensive damage control and public relations maneuvers,” Barbara Blaine, president of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said in a statement.
  
  Sweeney last week said he was willing to wait for the Bergen County prosecutor’s investigation of Fugee before demanding that Myers leave. On Friday, he said his decision to call for Myers’ resignation was spurred by the fact that the archbishop has refused to publicly address Fugee’s apparent breach of a vow never to minister to children and Myers’ own decisions over the years on the priest’s behalf.
  
  Sweeney, an altar boy in his youth who said the left-handedness he was born with was reversed by his parochial-school training, said that for Myers to reinstate Fugee to his ministry, even after his conviction on aggravated criminal sexual contact was overturned, broke faith with the people the archdiocese serves.
  
  “This is a place of trust,” Sweeney said about the churches of the archdiocese. “Tell me why they’re allowing [Fugee] to stay a priest? Kick him out, he doesn’t belong around children.”
  Continue reading this story on page 2
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  Band on the Run

  I grew up in the North Ward of Newark, N.J., the Sopranos homebase. It is interesting that a South Jersey state senator is raising this issue. I suspect the Star Ledger ran this story to put pressure on the prosecutors to enforce the agreement.

  I attended an Episcopal parish in ex urb of Philadelphia. The bishop of Philadelphia absolutely beyond any reasonable doubt covered up for his biological brother's (the bro is a priest, too) pedophilia behavior on several occasions. I don't pay much attention to anything here. When lay people found it, there was an emergency convention which established a special commission composed of priests and lay members. The commission was quite clear. Resign immediately with no pension. The facts are not in dispute.

  Normally calm people were so furious. The bishop declined to resign, citing church canon law. I don't know the current status.

  The local priest (a woman) was a key actor in the cover-up. No one in my parish demanded that she resigned. This is one of the reasons I drive into NY or Philadelphia for church. The lay people ooh and aah over someone quite mediocre.

  Sometimes lay people get what they deserve. There is a time to stand up and demand, not beg, for responsibility and accountability.

  Of course how many Witnesses ever stand up and defy the WTBTS over any issues? It takes an extraordinary person. Both the Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican Church have long histories of dissenters. The colonization of America was a religious dissent Where is the cognitive dissonance. I have little power over a bishop but a local priest......Please. .
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  DATA-DOG

  " "They want victims and witnesses to come to church officials first, giving them the chance to destroy evidence, fabricate alibis, intimidate victims, threaten witnesses, discredit whistle-blowers and start their extensive and expensive damage control and public relations maneuvers," Barbara Blaine, president of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said in a statement. "

  Hearing in Victoria Australia:

  Mr D. O'BRIEN - I understand your answer that the Legal Department will, in a sense, look after everything, and as a committee we will have to take that at face value. Do you accept that overall these guidelines focus on an internalised process, for example, that mandatorily reports to external authorities onlywhen advised to by the lawyers or when required to by the statute?

  Mr T. O'BRIEN - As I understand it, it is the prerogative of the victim to determine whether they wish to have it reported, not the minister to whom the accusation was made, even if it was a confession.

  Mr D. O'BRIEN - That is one reason why you might not choose to report. I will accept that answer and ask you another question just to get things moving. You have said that there are very few child abuse allegationsin your organisation, and, again taking it at face value, that is a commendable thing. However, when you make statements like that, do you accept that there is an aspect in relation to child abuse that it is extremely embarrassing for an organisation and obviously disturbing to victims and families?

  Mr T. O'BRIEN - Yes.

  Mr D. O'BRIEN - Do you accept the principle that perhaps an overly internalised process that reports to authorities only when the lawyers tell people to do so is potentially prone to a lack of reporting for reasons thatare not so good, because they are not what the child wants but are in order to protect the reputation of the organisation?
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  Sol Reform

  http://wyckoff.patch.com/articles/former-wyckoff-pastor-violated-court-order-prosecutors-say

  Breaking:
  Former Wyckoff Pastor Violated Court Order, Prosecutors Say »
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  Newark Priest Arrested After Allegedly Interacting with Minors
  
  Fugee broke a court agreement ordering him to stop working with kids, Bergen prosecutor says
  By Devin McGinley
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  8:55 pm
  
  
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  Former Wyckoff pastor Michael Fugee was arrested and charged Monday with multiple counts of contempt of a court order, after allegedly violating a 2007 agreement with prosecutors to discontinue work with children following accusations of sexual misconduct.
  
  The cleric has been living at St. Antoninus Parish on South Orange Avenue in Newark.
  
  Fugee, 52, confessed in 2001 to two acts of sexual misconduct with a Wyckoff teenager, once during a visit to the teen's home and again during an overnight church retreat to Virginia. The confession was later recanted, and a 2003 conviction was overturned on judicial error in 2007.
  
  Prosecutors opted not to retry Fugee, and instead reached an agreement with the priest and the Archdiocese of Newark that Fugee would return to the priesthood under the condition that he refrain from working with minors.
  
  According to the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office, Fugee violated the agreement by attending church youth retreats and hearing confusions from seven minors at churches around New Jersey.
  
  The prosecutor's office began investigating reports earlier this month that Fugee had been on youth retreats at St. Mary's Parish in Colts Neck and Holy Family Church in Nutley.
  
  The controversy that followed the accusations resulted in calls for the resignation of Archbishop John Meyers by prominent politicians such as Senate President Stephen Sweeney and gubernatorial candidate Barbara Buono. A priest and two youth ministers at St. Mary's resigned two weeks ago.
  
  The investigation by the prosecutor's office special victims unit, a release said, consisted of "numerous interviews with individuals who had personal knowledge of an witness [Fugee] attend the youth retreats and take confessions from minor children," and led to seven counts of contempt against the priest.
  
  Prosecutor John Molinelli requested that anyone with information contact the unit at 201-226-5620.
  
  Fugee was being held Monday night in lieu of $25,000 bail, with a court appearance scheduled for Tuesday morning.
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  Sol Reform

  Archbishop John J. Myers boots his second-in-command - Monsignor John E. Doran over Fugee scandal.

  http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2013/05/archbishop_john_j_myers_addres.html