Pastor Suspended for Allowing Former Priest Accused of Sexual Abuse to Attend Family Festival

By Mark Mueller
The Star-Ledger
May 23, 2014

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2014/05/pastor_suspended_for_allowing_former_priest_accused_of_sexual_abuse_to_attend_family_festival.html

John Capparelli, photographed at his Belleville home in 2011, was removed from the priesthood over allegations of sexual abuse. He later became a school teacher. (Robert Sciarrino/The Star-Ledger)

The Rev. Msgr. Christopher DiLella has been suspended as pastor of Our Lady of the Valley Parish in Wayne.

Amid the rides, games of chance and thick crowds at a church-sponsored family festival in Wayne earlier this month, the older man with the buzz cut and blue jacket hardly stood out. He might have been a new parishioner, maybe a grandfather.

Then someone recognized him.

John Capparelli had once been a priest in the Archdiocese of Newark. Accused of groping and brutalizing teenage boys, he was suspended from ministry in 1992. Nearly two decades later, after The Star-Ledger revealed he was working as a public school teacher in Newark, the state revoked his certificates.

And now here he was at the festival, a personal guest of the church’s pastor, the Rev. Msgr. Christopher DiLella, as children milled and rushed about.

Today, saying the protection of youth must be the "highest priority," Paterson Bishop Arthur Serratelli suspended DiLella from his post at Our Lady of the Valley Parish and barred him from exercising any priestly functions pending an investigation.

As a matter of procedure, the diocese also informed the Passaic County Prosecutor’s Office of Capparelli’s attendance at the festival. Capparelli was never criminally charged following the sex abuse claims, which date to the 1970s, 80s and early 90s.

In a statement, Serratelli said Capparelli went to the festival during the week of May 12 with the "knowledge and consent" of DiLella, who has been pastor of Our Lady of the Valley since 2010. The diocese was alerted to the situation through a letter it received Tuesday, the statement said.

Serratelli conducted a preliminary investigation and consulted with the Diocesan Review Board, which provides advice on abuse allegations and youth protection matters, before suspending DiLella this morning, the statement said.

A headshot of John Capparelli when he was a priest

"This immediate action has been taken because it is the highest priority of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Paterson to protect our youth and children," it said.

In a separate letter to parishioners of Our Lady of the Valley, Serratelli announced the assignment of a temporary administrator for the church and offered his prayers for the parish.

"I pray that the Lord heal any hurts that this situation may cause and keep you strong in faith and charity," he said.

Capparelli, 65, of Belleville, did not respond to a message left on his cell phone. DiLella could not be reached for comment. The church’s assistant pastor, the Rev. ST Sutton, said he was not permitted to comment.

A parishioner told The Star-Ledger Capparelli and DiLella are close friends. The parishioner, who was present at the festival and described Capparelli’s attire that day, spoke on the condition of anonymity. He said he did not want to anger others in the parish by speaking to the media.

A biography of DiLella on the parish’s website shows he attended Immaculate Conception Seminary, then in Bergen County, at the same time Capparelli was there.

The old allegations against Capparelli resurfaced in 2011, when a Somerset County man filed suit against him and the Newark Archdiocese. The man, who later reached a settlement, said the former priest lured athletic teenage boys through wrestling matches, persuading them to wear revealing Speedo bathing suits and photographing them in compromising positions.

Capparelli sometimes joined in the bouts, groping them repeatedly, according to the plaintiff and several other men who contacted The Star-Ledger. Though Capparelli did not face allegations of impropriety during his time as a math teacher in Newark, the state opted to revoke his teaching certificates in 2013. Around the same time, he was formally laicized, or kicked out of the priesthood altogether.