NEW JERSEY/ILLINOIS
The Record
SUNDAY, MAY 5, 2013
BY LISA ARTHUR
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD
While the leader of the Archdiocese of Newark is under intense scrutiny for his handling of a Wyckoff priest-abuse case, Archbishop John J. Myers is also being faulted by those bringing a civil lawsuit in Illinois, claiming that the diocese he led there as a bishop failed to keep an alleged pedophile priest away from children.
The suit, filed in 2008 against the Diocese of Peoria, and Monsignor Thomas Maloney, claims that the plaintiff Andrew Ward was molested by Maloney in 1995 and 1996, when he was about 8 years old. The alleged abuse of the boy began a year after a woman had alleged to the diocese that she had been molested by Maloney in her childhood, according to the suit.
“The diocese did not further investigate the report … did not do a follow-up interview with the woman, did not ask Maloney’s fellow co-workers about his activities and didn’t contact law enforcement with the information,” the suit alleges.
News of the Illinois litigation comes amid questions about how the Newark Archdiocese managed the Rev. Michael Fugee, a former assistant pastor at St. Elizabeth of Hungary Church in Wyckoff who was convicted in 2003 of aggravated criminal sexual contact on allegations he repeatedly groped a 13-year-old boy.
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