Archbishop Myers Makes Public Comments about Fugee Case
By Jeff Green
In his first interview about a scandal involving a Catholic priest arrested last month for allegedly violating an agreement with prosecutors, Newark Archbishop John J. Myers defended his actions and provided new details about church’s decision making during the crisis. Myers, in an interview published online Tuesday by the National Catholic Register, explained a confidential review board ruling in the decade-old sex-abuse case against the Rev. Michael Fugee and addressed new charges that Fugee violated an agreement with prosecutors by working with children throughout New Jersey. Fugee was convicted of groping a 13-year-old boy in 2003 when he was an assistant pastor at the Church of St. Elizabeth of Hungary in Wyckoff. The conviction was overturned in 2006 due to a judicial error, but to avoid a retrial, he entered into a special rehabilitation program for first-time offenders. Fugee also signed an agreement with the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office and the archdiocese that strictly prohibits ministering to children for as long as he remains a priest. Last month he was charged with seven counts of violating the agreement for allegedly hearing confessions of children. Myers has been criticized for returning Fugee to the ministry in 2009, a decision he based upon a church review board that found no sexual abuse had occurred in the groping case. Myers defended that decision and expressed doubts about Fugee’s guilt in the interview with The Register’s senior editor, Joan Frawley Desmond. He specifically questioned the integrity of Fugee’s confession, noting that the priest recanted at trial and “denied wrongdoing several times” when he was first talked to investigators. “The average person is looking for a black-and-white answer, but there are cases where there are more grays than black and white,” Myers said. “That is what the court and the review board were dealing with.” Myers said his review board led a “professional” inquiry, looking into the allegations “as if they were cops,” by conducting interviews, reading court documents and having “a lot of discussion” over a three-year period. Myers said the board did not give Fugee “a clean bill of health: He engaged in activity that was ill advised but did not rise to the level of sexual abuse.” In recent interviews, the alleged victim, now 26, said he never heard from the review board about testifying. In court documents, he pointed to four specific incidents in which Fugee pinned him down against his will and “slowly” moved his hand over his crotch. Myers alluded to problems with supervising priests accused of sexual abuse. When asked if he regrets his decision to return Fugee to the ministry, Myers said said it was “appropriate at the time,” but that he would never again enter an agreement with law enforcement that would require supervision. “We would not enter into a memorandum of understanding that places a burden on the Church,” Myers said. “The state has more resources. Our advice would be to tell the priest, ‘Go back for a second trial and clear your name.’” Myers said priests who lived with Fugee in recent years all knew about his “situation.” The archbishop mentioned a pastor who, due to last-minute need, asked Fugee to hear confessions for a youth retreat. He did not name the pastor but said the activity happened a few times last year, the same time prosecutors say Fugee violated the agreement while he was living in the rectory at Sacred Heart Church in Rochelle Park. “There were activities that he was not permitted to do; unfortunately, the pastor permitted this,” Myers said. An archdiocese spokesman has declined to say whether pastors who approved of Fugee’s work with children, including the Rev. Robert Wolfee of Sacred Heart, have been reprimanded. Fugee resigned from the ministry last month, but he remains a priest. Myers said that he is awaiting the conclusion of the prosecutor’s continuing investigation before considering further church action, which could include laicization. The archbishop said in the meantime, Fugee is living in a rectory of an unnamed parish where he cannot function publicly as a priest. Myers the characterized the church as a “charismatic movement parish.” Fugee’s last known residence was at the St. Antoninus Church in Newark. Myers called for a greater discussion amongst Catholic bishops about how to supervise accused priests, something he raised during an annual conference in San Diego this month. He said the issue is not outlined in a national “zero tolerance” church policy known as the Dallas Charter. “We discussed the fact that supervision is a problem under the charter,” Myers said. “What if a priest moves to Florida? How do we supervise them? My suggestion is that the bishops work to address these issues soon.” Contact: greenj@northjersey.com
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