NEW JERSEY
The Record
SUNDAY, AUGUST 18, 2013
BY JEFF GREEN
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD
One churchgoer on Sunday said he has a hard time buying the Newark archbishop’s explanation after a settlement was announced last week between an alleged sex-abuse victim and the Illinois diocese the archbishop once led. Others said he has made mistakes, with a few echoing the suggestion of some state lawmakers that he step down.
Only a few of the more than dozen parishioners interviewed on Sunday praised Archbishop John J. Myers’ leadership and his handling of three priests accused of molesting children.
Following the 10:30 Mass at Our Lady of Visitation in Paramus, Dr. Lino Mier called on Myers to “accept responsibility” in the case that led to the Illinois settlement. The victim’s parents charged that Myers, who led the Peoria Diocese between 1990 and 2001, failed to keep a predator priest from their child and others by not acting on a woman’s abuse claim.
Documents released last week revealed that a top Myers aide received a molestation complaint about the priest and that no action was taken. Myers testified in a deposition that the complaint got lost in the diocese’s “slipshod filing system” and he never saw it.
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