NEW JERSEY
NJ.com
By Mark Mueller | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
on October 04, 2014
Calling the actions of one his priests “inexcusable,” Trenton Bishop David M. O’Connell on Friday publicly apologized to a South Jersey man who says he was sexually assaulted hundreds of times in the 1980s and 1990s by the diocese’s former youth leader.
In a four-paragraph statement placed prominently on the diocese’s website, O’Connell offered his prayers for the alleged victim, Chris Naples, and for “all those affected by the horrible scourge of sexual abuse of minors.”
O’Connell issued the statement hours after NJ Advance Media disclosed that Naples had reached a $610,000 settlement with the diocese in August. Naples filed suit against the diocese five months earlier, alleging church officials knew the Rev. Terence McAlinden was a danger to children and allowed him to remain in ministry anyway.
Naples said in a story published Friday that an apology was one of his key demands during the negotiations but that he had not yet received one.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.