Weehawken Woman Says Archbishop Meyers Didn't Act on Sexual Abuse Allegations

By Terrence T. McDonald
The Jersey Journal
June 23, 2013

http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/2013/06/weehawken_woman_says_archbishop_meyers_didnt_act_on_sexual_abuse_allegations.html

The Roman Catholic Bishop Edgar M. da Cunha speaks at a special liturgy for children with autism in 2011. A Weehawken woman says he and Newark Archbishop did not do anything when they were told of allegations that her two sons were abused by members of a religious order

A Weehawken woman who says her twin sons were sexually abused by a member of a religious order in two New Jersey counties is calling for the resignation of Newark Archbishop John J. Myers and the Newark Archdiocese’s new vicar general, who the woman says knew about the alleged abuse and did not act on it.

The 61-year-old woman, who asked not to be named so her sons won’t be identified, said she spoke to Bishop Edgar M. da Cunha, the archdiocese’s new vicar general, in 2009 about allegations that her sons had been abused by two members of the Vocationist Fathers religious order.

Da Cunha did nothing, the woman said in a Jersey City conference room recently.

"It fell on deaf ears," said the woman.

Da Cunha was promoted earlier this month to replace Monsignor John E. Doran as vicar general, second in command to the archbishop. Doran was demoted due to his supervision of the Rev. Michael Fugee, who worked with minors in violation of a lifetime ban on ministry to children. Da Cunha is a member of the Vocationist Fathers.

The alleged abuse occurred between 1993 and 1998, when a vocationist father at a Palisades Park church repeatedly abused her two sons separately, the woman said. The abuse occurred in Bergen and Essex counties and began when her sons were 11-years-old, she said.

The vocationist father has not been charged with any crimes.

Archdiocese spokesman Jim Goodness said the matter was referred to them in late July 2009, and it was "immediately" forwarded to prosecutors in Bergen and Essex.

Goodness wouldn’t comment on the woman’s call for Myers’ and da Cunha’s resignations.

"I won’t even entertain those comments," he said. "We have acted appropriately here in this matter, as we do consistently."

The woman says the spoke to da Cunha on June 15, 2009 and he did nothing.

About a month later, the mother and Robert M. Hoatson, a former priest who heads Road to Recovery, an advocacy group for victims of sex abuse, spoke to the archdiocese’s victim assistant coordinator. It was as a result of this conversation that Goodness said the Archdiocese contacted the authorities.

Hoatson and the woman want to know why it took a second call for the archdiocese to take action.

Meanwhile, Essex County Prosecutor’s Office spokeswoman Katherine Carter said her office has "no indication" that it received a complaint regarding the woman’s twin sons.

Asked to respond, Goodness said, "I know I sent it to them. I sent it to Bergen and Essex counties at the same time."

He added, "Maybe they lost them ... I will re-send."

The woman says one of her sons went to the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office in 2010 regarding his accusations and was told to "go deal with the archdiocese." The Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office did not respond to a request for comment on this assertion.

The man accused of most of the alleged abuse is now in a diocese in the Philippines. Goodness said that, since he is not a priest but part of a religious order, the Newark Archdiocese had no role in transferring him.

The head of the vocation, the Rev. Antonio L. da Silva of St. Michael’s Parish in Newark, did not respond to two requests for comment.