Advocacy Group to Call for National Investigation of Newark Archbishop John J. Myers
By Mark Mueller
The New Jersey director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests today will request an investigation of Newark Archbishop John J. Myers by the National Review Board, an advisory group created by the nation's Roman Catholic bishops in the wake of the clergy sex abuse crisis. Mark Crawford, the longtime head of SNAP in New Jersey, said he is calling on the board to examine whether Myers violated the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People in his handling of the Rev. Michael Fugee, a priest who attended youth retreats and heard confessions from minors in defiance of a lifetime ban on such interactions. American bishops adopted the landmark charter in Dallas in 2002. It created a zero-tolerance policy for abusers, stating that any priest credibly accused of sexual abuse will not return to full ministry. Fugee, 52, confessed to groping a teenage boy in 2001. He later signed a binding agreement with the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office barring him from working with children in any capacity as long as he is a priest. An official with the archdiocese also signed the agreement. The prosecutor's office, alerted to Fugee's activities by The Star-Ledger, has since opened an investigation and has questioned members of St. Mary's Parish, the Colts Neck church where Fugee had an unofficial affiliation with the youth group. The archdiocese has defended Fugee's involvement, saying he did not violate the agreement because he was under the supervision of other priests and the youth group's two lay ministers, Michael and Amy Lenehan. The Lenehans are longtime friends of Fugee's. Crawford will request the review board's investigation at a 3 p.m. press conference outside Myers' office, alongside the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart on Clifton Street.
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