NEW JERSEY
The Star-Ledger
By Mark Mueller/The Star-Ledger
on October 03, 2013
A Roman Catholic priest caught up in a sexting sting with someone he thought was a 16-year-old boy last year has been suspended from ministry by Trenton Bishop David M. O’Connell, who called the priest’s behavior “a betrayal of trust and confidence.”
The Rev. Matthew Riedlinger, formerly an assistant pastor at St. Aloysius Church in Jackson, may not serve as a priest in any capacity and may not wear clerical garb, O’Connell said in a statement issued late this afternoon.
Riedlinger, the subject of a lengthy story in The Sunday Star-Ledger, had already been on restricted ministry, attending to the needs of retired Bishop John M. Smith.
O’Connell removed Riedlinger from the Jackson parish in August 2012 after learning he was the subject of an elaborate sting in which he thought he was corresponding with a teenage boy. Riedlinger also frequently texted in sexually explicit terms with young adults, according to a complaint filed with the diocese and The Star-Ledger’s findings.
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