NEW JERSEY
Asbury Park Press
Written by
Amanda Oglesby
@OglesbyAPP
JACKSON — A Catholic priest who once ministered at St. Aloysius Church has been suspended in the wake of a sexting scandal with a man who he reportedly thought was a 16-year-old boy.
The Diocese of Trenton announced Thursday that the Rev. Matthew Riedlinger, 30, was formally suspended by Bishop David M. O’Connell following news that Riedlinger was involved in sexual text message and online conversations that “clearly contravened his priestly vows,” O’Connell said in a prepared statement.
Riedlinger recently took a leave of absence from the priesthood after people questioned his participation in another priest’s funeral Mass that occurred weeks ago, church authorities said.
After taking public criticism Wednesday from the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, known as SNAP, O’Connell decried Riedlinger’s actions as a “betrayal of trust and confidence” not only to the people hurt by the priest’s sexual conversations but to the Catholic community.
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