NEW JERSEY
The Star-Ledger
By Star-Ledger Staff
on September 24, 2013
The expected appointment of Bishop Bernard A. Hebda as coadjutor archbishop of the Archdiocese Newark was confirmed this morning in an e-mail from the Vatican News Service.
Hebda’s appointment will be made official at 11 a.m. today at the archdiocesan offices in Newark.
Hebda will assist John J. Myers in running New Jersey’s largest diocese, with more than 1.3 million Roman Catholics in Essex, Union, Hudson and Bergen counties. Myers has been archbishop since 2001.
Advocates for victims of clergy sex abuse suggested the move was almost certainly tied to scandals that have clouded Myers’ stewardship of the archdiocese this year. During that period, one priest was arrested after violating a ban on ministry to children, and another took up residence in a parish despite a credible history of sexual abuse.
Myers also was faulted last month for missing or ignoring signs of abuse among priests during his former assignment as bishop of Peoria, Ill.
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