Rochelle Park Parish Is Told Priest Is on the Way out

By Matthew McGrath, Karen Sudol and Abbott Koloff
The Record
February 10, 2013

http://www.northjersey.com/community/religion/houses_of_worship/Troubled_priest_is_leaving_Rochelle_Park_parish.html

Michael Fugee appearing in court in 2007.

Church of the Sacred Heart parishioners in Rochelle Park were told by their pastor Sunday that a priest living at the rectory, who admitted fondling a teenage boy years ago, has agreed to leave the parish.

The Rev. Robert Wolfee, the pastor of Sacred Heart, said at the end of 10 a.m. Mass that the Rev. Michael Fugee was “in the process of moving” in response to media reports about his criminal history. Wolfee didn’t say where Fugee would be moving.

Officials with the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Newark acknowledged last week that Fugee had been living at the Terrace Avenue church, assisting the pastor with some duties, and that he is considered a priest in good standing.

Newark Archbishop John J. Myers came under fire earlier in the week after it became public that Fugee was working as an administrator in charge of raising money for missionary work and had been given an additional influential title.

Fugee recently was named co-director of the Office of Continuing Education and Ongoing Formation of Priests, which church officials said involves distributing educational materials for priests.

That title is in addition to his job as director of its Office of the Propagation of the Faith, which involves fundraising for missions.

At Sunday’s Mass, Wolfee said that when he became pastor, Fugee was already saying about four weekday Masses at the Rochelle Park church each month. Wolfee said that when a weekend priest was no longer available, he asked Fugee to fill in. “Shortly after that, he told me he was interested in moving here on an in-resident status,” Wolfee told his congregants.

Jim Goodness, a spokesman for the Newark Archdiocese, said last week the Fugee is permitted to serve in-residence — meaning he lives in the rectory and is available to celebrate Mass — but his principal duties remain in the archdiocese’s chancery office.

Goodness acknowledged that parishioners at Sacred Heart were not told about Fugee’s past, but said it was a matter of public record.

“I think Father Fugee is someone who has been known and in the public record for over a decade and we have published in the diocesan newspaper his assignments since he returned to ministry,” Goodness said. “We have not kept anything away from people. It’s been a matter of public record.”

Wolfee said at Mass that Fugee was barred from acting as a “parochial vicar” or pastor, didn’t receive a salary from the parish and didn’t engage in parish duties such as teaching catechism classes or working with the Catholic Youth Organization — CYO. Wolfee also said Fugee couldn’t have any unsupervised contact with altar servers.

“I have no knowledge of or reason to believe that anything inappropriate has occurred here,” Wolfee said.

Fugee was an assistant pastor at St. Elizabeth Church in Wyckoff in 2001, when he was charged with criminal sexual contact and child endangerment for allegedly groping a 13-year-old boy. He initially confessed but then recanted at trial, saying he was playfully wrestling with the teen.

A jury found him guilty of sexual contact and acquitted him of endangerment, but the conviction was overturned by an appellate panel of judges who ruled that the trial judge had not given proper instructions to the jury.

Fugee entered the Pretrial Intervention Program, a special probation program for first-time offenders, in 2007. The terms of the program required him to serve a two-year probationary term, undergo sex-offender-specific counseling and have no contact with the victim.

He also signed a memorandum of understanding with the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office that bars him from having unsupervised contact with “or any duties that call for the supervision/ministry of any child or children under the age of 18.” Fugee must abide by that order for as long as he remains a priest.

After Fugee’s duties with the archdiocese were reported, critics argued last week that he should have been barred from serving as a priest based on the Dallas Charter, an agreement reached by U.S. bishops in 2002 to remove from ministry all clerics found to have sexually abused a child. They are not allowed to wear the priest’s collar or celebrate Mass in public.

Fugee’s case went before a church review board, as called for in the charter’s protocols, church officials said. The review board decided he would return to ministry, they said, although the agreement with the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office places certain restrictions on where he can serve.

“After the acquittal and dismissal of any charges, the review board looked into the matter and recommended at the end of the inquiry that he could be returned to ministry,” Goodness said. “They did not find that issue was considered sexual abuse.”

Bergen County Prosecutor John Molinelli said his office has not received any information about Fugee’s duties that would prompt investigators to “assess whether his current appointment violates the terms of his PTI.”

However, Molinelli urged the archdiocese to reach out to his office in advance of any job placement.

“A prior disclosure by the archdiocese would allow us to know beforehand of the nature of his appointment so that all parties, especially the public, will know that there has been no violation of the law or the memorandum of understanding,” he wrote in an email.

An advocate for the victims of priest abuse, Mark Crawford, head of the New Jersey chapter of the Survivor Network of Those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, said last week that Fugee should not be allowed to wear the clerical collar. He said that allowing him to continue in ministry appears to be a violation of the Dallas Charter.

“The fact is regardless of where you’re working, at some point, he is going to have unsupervised access to children,” Crawford said. “I have no doubt, and therein lies the concern.”

There are other cases of priests who have remained in ministry, including one who had been found guilty of abusing a child by a civil court jury, said David Clohessy, SNAP’s national executive director.

However, Clohessy said he knows of no other case in the nation where a priest confessed to abuse, was found guilty in a criminal court, and remains in ministry.

“I can’t think of a more egregious case at every level in terms of an archbishop acting so recklessly and callously,” he said.

Goodness said Fugee’s recent behavior should be considered.

“I think it’s important for everyone who has met with and worked with Father Fugee in ministry today to look at what he has done and how he acts with people, and see the care and compassion he has as a priest, and should make their judgment from that,” Goodness said.

Contact: sudol@northjersey.com