NEW JERSEY
Waiting for Godot to Leave
Kevin O’Brien
Let me begin by saying that “sexting” (sending lewd comments and naked photos of yourself via text), though sinful, is far from the worst thing one adult can do to another. Sexting someone you think is a 16-year-old boy … well, that’s another story
But which is worse? A priest sexting someone he thinks is a 16-year-old boy, but isn’t – or a pastor refusing to tell parishioners about this and bullying them into not asking questions when the priest is removed from their parish for this very reason?
The priest intended to abuse a minor, but didn’t. The pastor intended to bully his parishioners, and did.
From The Star Ledger (emphasis mine) …
The text messages read as if they’ve been ripped from a pornographic novel.
Matthew Riedlinger quizzed his texting partner about sex videos, pressed for details about intimate liaisons, described sexual acts and encouraged mutual masturbation.
He also repeatedly asked to meet.
“Promise me you will never breath (sic) a word of this to anyone — ok?” he wrote.
Riedlinger had good reason for discretion.
He is a priest of the Diocese of Trenton, and while exchanging more than 1,200 text messages over four weeks last year, he thought was he talking to a 16-year-old boy.
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