NEW JERSEY
NJ.com
By Mark Mueller | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
on October 02, 2014
In what is believed to be one of New Jersey’s largest individual settlements involving sexual abuse by a priest, the Diocese of Trenton has paid $610,000 to a Burlington County man who says he was molested for more than a decade by the former head of the diocese’s youth group.
Chris Naples, 42, of New Gretna, filed suit against the diocese in March, alleging church leaders allowed the Rev. Terence McAlinden to remain in ministry for 15 years after quietly paying a settlement to another alleged victim.
It wasn’t until 2007, when Naples publicly accused McAlinden, that the diocese suspended the priest. A church investigation at the time found Naples’ claims to be credible.
Had the diocese acted on the earlier allegation, Naples says, his own abuse would have not lasted as long. He alleges McAlinden molested him hundreds of times in the late 1980s and 1990s, beginning when Naples was 13.
In recent years, a third alleged victim also has come forward, saying McAlinden repeatedly sexually assaulted him in the 1960s at the priest’s first assignment, Our Lady of Victories Church in Sayreville. The diocese settled with the man in 2012.
Naples, who reached agreement with the diocese in August after months of mediation, said in an interview the settlement is less about the money than the message it sends.
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