NEW JERSEY
Observer-Tribune
Posted: Friday, September 4, 2015
St. Joseph Church in Mendham holds an unfortunate place in the history of priests who have sexually abused children.
The church was at the epicenter of the scandal that has torn apart the Catholic Church. One of its former pastors, James Hanley, was the church leader from 1972 to 1982, where he sexually abused more than a dozen boys in the church rectory. He was later defrocked but not charged because of the statute of limitations and victims who told of the abuse were instrumental in drawing the nation’s and the world’s attention to the issue.
As a small but powerful reminder of the horrors conducted by Hanley and others, a memorial was installed outside the church in 2004. The church had little role in the memorial, as volunteers raised money for its construction.
The memorial, including a 400 pound black basalt millstone, was vandalized in 2011. It was then rebuilt and two figures of a boy and girl were added only to be again vandalized in 2013.
And in the latest insult, one of the figures has been destroyed and the likelihood of its repairs is in doubt.
It would seem that the church pastor, the Rev. Monsignor Joseph Anginoli, and the Catholic diocese of Paterson would act intentionally and quickly to revere the memories of all those who have been so terribly abused.
Unfortunately that’s not the way the church has acted most recently.
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