NEWARK (NJ)
The Jersey Journal
Wednesday, March 22, 2006
NEWHOUSE NEWS SERVICE
The Newark Archdiocese has implemented a new policy to alert parishioners whenever a priest is permanently barred from the ministry because of a sex abuse allegation, a spokesman said, a policy used to alert some Hudson County parishioners last weekend of the retirement of Monsignor Peter Cheplic.
The archdiocese was previously the state's only Roman Catholic diocese that did not routinely alert parishioners when their priest, or former priest, was prohibited from wearing a collar because of sex allegations.
Now the archdiocese has begun making it known at every church where those priests served - generally through church bulletin notes - that they were removed because of an accusation, said James Goodness, a spokesman for Newark Archbishop John J. Myers.
Goodness would not say exactly when archdiocese officials changed the policy.