One of the top officials in the Archdiocese of Newark has been forced
out for failing to properly monitor the activities of a priest who had been
forbidden from having contact with children, the archdiocese announced on
Saturday.
The departure of Msgr. John E. Doran, who reported to Archbishop John
J. Myers, is the latest fallout from a sexual abuse scandal that stretches back
more than a decade.
In 2003, the Rev. Michael Fugee was convicted on charges that he groped
a young boy. Although the verdict was later overturned over a judicial error,
Father Fugee, to avoid another trial, entered into an agreement with the Bergen
County prosecutor’s office that he would enter sex-offender treatment and have
no unsupervised contact with children as part of his church duties. Monsignor
Doran was responsible for supervising Father Fugee, according to court
documents.
In April, however, The Star Ledger reported that Father Fugee had been
openly working with children again, hearing their confessions, attending youth
retreats and even posting photos of himself with boys on his Facebook page.
After the revelations were made public, the Rev. Thomas Triggs, the
pastor of the church in Colts Neck, N.J., where Father Fugee attended youth
retreats, resigned under pressure from the bishop of Trenton, David M.
O’Connell. (Colts Neck is part of the Diocese of Trenton.)
Yet Archbishop Myers’s office continued to publicly defend its handling
of the case until last week, when Father Fugee was arrested on a charge of
violating the agreement with prosecutors.
In a letter to parishioners, a column in The Star Ledger and a video on
the archdiocese’s Web site, Archbishop Myers acknowledged that the church
leadership had failed. “The investigation uncovered certain operational
vulnerabilities in our own systems,” he said. “We found that the strong
protocols presently in place were not always observed.”
He did not say what specific protocols had been violated.
“As a result of operational failures, both Monsignor Doran and I felt
that the archdiocese would be best served by his stepping down as vicar
general,” Archbishop Myers said. “This action clears the way for making more
effective changes in our monitoring function.” Father Fugee’s lawyer, Michael
D’Alessio, did not return a call seeking comment.
Monsignor Doran, who had previously been the pastor of St. Cassian
Church in Montclair, N.J., signed the letter from the archbishop. He could not
be reached for comment Saturday.
The archdiocese characterized his departure as a resignation.
Archbishop Myers, while noting the failures in this case, defended how
his office had handled allegations of sexual abuse over all. “We want our procedures
to be among the strictest in the entire Catholic Church,” he said. “This has
been one of my priorities since becoming archbishop in 2001 and that will not
change. In fact, the archdiocese has an exemplary record of addressing
allegations against our clergy. During my tenure I have personally removed 19
priests for substantiated allegations.”
The case of Father Fugee has stoked outrage among parishioners and
politicians in New Jersey. It appeared to be a clear violation of the child
protection policies the American bishops adopted in 2002, at the height of the
sexual abuse scandal, which pledged that any priest faced with credible
accusations of child sexual abuse may not continue working in ministry. This
“zero tolerance” approach was approved by Pope John Paul II.
But few of the accused priests have been prosecuted in the criminal
justice system because most of the cases are beyond the statutes of
limitations, which require abuse to be reported within a few years after it
occurred even though many abuse victims take years to come to grips with what
happened to them or are afraid to report it. The prosecution of Father Fugee
was an exception.
The Archdiocese of Newark has compounded the budding scandal with
inconsistent explanations. The spokesman for the archdiocese, James Goodness,
initially said that Father Fugee had been under supervision while working in a
parish in the Trenton diocese, so it was not a violation of the agreement that
Father Fugee and the archdiocese had with prosecutors. Soon after, the
archdiocese changed its response, with Mr. Goodness saying that Father Fugee
was ministering without the knowledge or permission of the archdiocese.
Father Fugee has stepped down from ministry. The archdiocese has not
said whether it will seek to remove him from the priesthood, a process known as
laicization, which requires Vatican approval.
Archbishop Myers said that he would be appointing a new special adviser
to the Archdiocesan Review Board and would provide more resources to
investigate allegations of sexual misconduct.
“We are not perfect,” he said. “But people who suggest we have not
taken seriously the oversight of our clergy and do not put the security and
safety of our families and parishioners, especially our children, at the
forefront of our ministry are just plain wrong.”
Robert Hoatson, a former priest in the Newark Archdiocese and the
president of Road to Recovery, a victims’ rights organization, praised the
decision to dismiss Monsignor Doran, but added that it did not go far enough.
“The Newark Archdiocese will not heal until Archbishop Myers has resigned or
been removed,” Mr. Hoatson said.
SCRIPTURES
DEUTERONOMY 28: 32Thy sons and thy daughters shall be given unto
another people, and thine eyes shall look, and fail with longing for them all
the day long: and there shall be no might in thine hand.
JOEL 3: 3And they have cast lots for my people; and have given a boy
for an harlot, and sold a girl for wine, that they might drink.
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