For Protecting a Pedophile, Newark Archbishop Myers Must Resign: Opinion

By Joseph F. Vitale
The Star-Ledger
May 8, 2013

http://blog.nj.com/njv_guest_blog/2013/05/for_protecting_a_pedophile_new.html

Archbishop John J. Myers, above, should resign over the Michael Fugee scandal, says state Sen. Joseph F. Vitale, who has authored several laws supporting the victims of child sex abuse.

Imagine a schoolteacher had been charged with criminal sexual contact and later admitted he twice fondled the genitals of a young student under his care. Imagine his employer, the local school board, had been notified of his behavior but, instead of stripping him of his teaching post and firing him, simply reassigned him to a different location, where the teacher would still be able to have contact with students. All of us, of course, would be outraged and sickened.

We would also expect this teacher would go to prison and that those who allowed him to continue having contact with children would be fired from their jobs. Sounds about right, doesn’t it? But that’s not what happened in the case of the Rev. Michael Fugee and his employer, the Archdiocese of Newark.

In 2003, Fugee was convicted of criminal sexual contact and sentenced to five years’ probation, in addition to registering as a sex offender under Megan’s Law. Later, his conviction was overturned on a technicality and, instead of retrying the case, prosecutors permitted Fugee to enter pretrial intervention, on the condition that he sign a binding agreement.

That agreement states Fugee “may not have unsupervised contact with or any duties that call for the supervision/ministry of any children or children under the age of 18.” The document goes on to state “this includes, but is not limited to, presiding over a parish, involvement with a youth group, religious education/parochial school, CCD (or Sunday school), confessions of children, youth choir, youth retreats and day care.” The agreement also prohibits the archdiocese from assigning him to any of those duties.

Despite Fugee’s admission of guilt, an internal review board (whose members are appointed by the archbishop) concluded no abuse took place. Their findings were forwarded to the Vatican, which concurred.

In 2009, Fugee was reinstated to official church duties. Since then, bishops, priests and parishioners from other dioceses have confirmed that Fugee attended youth retreats, heard confession from minors behind closed doors and traveled to Canada with children through his unofficial association with a Monmouth County church. This happened under the leadership of the Archdiocese of Newark and Archbishop John J. Myers.

Myers, who has supervisory authority over Fugee, refuses to speak directly about this debacle, and instead has been communicating through his spokesman, James Goodness. For several days, Goodness denied that Fugee violated the agreement because Fugee was under the supervision of other priests and lay ministers when he had contact with minors.

Unfortunately, Goodness had either not read or willfully ignored the agreement Fugee and the church signed. While the agreement states that Fugee may not have “unsupervised” contact, it also states he may not engage in “any duties that call for the supervision/ministry of any children or children under the age of 18.” It is clear the archbishop was twisting or confusing the agreement for his own protection and purposes.

Goodness has tried to clarify his statements and has said Myers had no knowledge of Fugee’s work with children and did not seek his permission to do so. All that, while for so long denying the agreement was violated.

For so many years, we’ve heard the seemingly limitless accounts of gut-wrenching sexual abuse of children at the hands of religious leaders, lay people and others entrusted to care for them. They’re among the worst crimes ever committed. And still, it continues. For so long, religious institutions either shielded, hid or moved abusers from one diocese to another, from one state to another, from one victim to the next.

Ironically, some church leaders are quick to condemn parishioners they believe violate the sacraments of the church. Many lay people who differ from the church on social issues have been denied communion and threatened with excommunication. And yet, when it comes to a child molester, Myers and other church leaders are not quick to punish, defrock or excommunicate.

What would Christ say if he were to see what church leaders are doing in his name? What would he say to those who, tasked with defending the oppressed, choose instead to defend the oppressors? And what would he, who spoke so clearly about right and wrong, think of a leader of his church who hides behind a spokesman and refuses to explicitly condemn evil when it is hiding in plain sight?

Myers knows Fugee is a pedophile and has ultimate authority over him. He violated the trust bestowed upon him by his parishioners and potentially placed even more children in harm’s way. In the name of all that is moral and right, and in order to repair and strengthen the very church he claims to love, Archbishop Myers should resign.