NEWARK (NJ)
The Pillar [Washington DC]
February 10, 2025
Cardinal Joseph Tobin of Newark commissioned this week an independent review into the results of an independent investigation he previously ordered into the fallout of the 2018 scandals surrounding Theodore McCarrick.
In a statement issued by the Archdiocese of Newark on Monday, Tobin said he had retained the law firm Ropes & Gray LLP “to conduct a comprehensive third-party review of the facts regarding the investigation and report by the Latham & Watkins law firm on behalf of Seton Hall in 2019 regarding the former Archbishop, Theodore McCarrick.”
The new independent review follows the appointment of Monsignor Joseph Reilly as president of Seton Hall University, which is an apostolate of the Newark archdiocese, last year, despite a 2019 task force of the university Board of Regents telling the priest in that it had recommended to Cardinal Tobin that he be excluded from university leadership positions.
Reilly was named the university’s president in 2024, despite being named in the results of the previous investigation, which concluded that during his time as rector of the archdiocesan seminary attached to the university campus, Reilly “knew of sex abuse allegations on campus” and failed to follow proper procedures.
“Questions have been raised about internal reports concerning the actions and behavior of Theodore McCarrick and an investigation into those reports authorized by the Board of Regents over five years ago,” said Tobin in the statement. “In those reports, there are references to Monsignor Joseph Reilly, who was appointed President of Seton Hall by the Board of Regents in 2024. Questions have been raised about whether Monsignor Reilly acted appropriately.”
“The review by Ropes & Gray will include how the findings of these reports relate to Monsignor Joseph Reilly, including whether they were communicated to any and all appropriate personnel at the Archdiocese and Seton Hall University and Monsignor Reilly, and if so, by what means and by whom,” the cardinal said.
According to a Dec. 21 report from Politico, an internal investigation at the university, opened with Tobin’s authorization in the fallout of the 2018 Theodore McCarrick scandal, found that Msgr. Joseph Reilly had failed to follow proper procedures in two instances while rector of the Immaculate Conception Seminary — and that he was aware of a third.
Reilly later admitted knowledge of a third incident at St. Andrew’s Hall, another archdiocesan formation house on Seton Hall’s campus, in 2014.
Reilly’s apparent failure to act in these cases was consistent with the university’s published summary update following the independent investigation in 2019, which concluded that “the University’s Title IX policies are consistent with state and federal law,” but that “these policies, however, were not always followed at Immaculate Conception Seminary and St. Andrew’s Seminary, which resulted in incidents of sexual harassment going unreported.”
In a summary of the investigation’s findings into Reilly, sent to him by the university in Nov. 2019, he was told “the Latham Report found that you were aware of sexual harassment allegations involving [Immaculate Conception Seminary] seminarians and did not report and did not report such allegations to [Seton Hall University] officials, in violation of Title IX policies.”
“The Latham investigators also found that you declined to answer questions regarding certain sexual harassment at [St. Andrew’s Hall] of which you were aware during your time as Rector of ICS,” the letter continued.
In one instance in 2012, as rector of Immaculate Conception, Reilly reportedly oversaw the dismissal of a seminarian involved in a claim of sexual abuse, without following proper reporting procedures or informing university authorities — allowing the man to continue as a student at Seton Hall.
In a second instance in the same year, Reilly reportedly presided over a second seminarian’s dismissal — in this case the alleged victim of a sexual abuse claim — without investigating his claim or alerting university authorities.
The third incident is believed to be one in which the rector of St. Andrew’s Hall — the campus undergraduate seminary — was removed in 2014 and placed on a medical leave of absence following an incident in which he allegedly hid a camera in the bedroom of a young priest.
In the Nov. 2019 letter to Reilly, sent to him by the special task force of the university’s board of regents — the president of which is and was at the time Cardinal Tobin — the priest was informed that “the Responsive Action Plan recommends that the Archbishop of Newark remove you from your position as rector of ICS… and also recommends that you be removed from your position on the [Board of Trustees] and the Board of Overseers, but that you be permitted to continue as a faculty member.”
The same letter summarized the Board of Regent’s policy in response to the 2019 independent report, including the resolution that any employee in a leadership position with knowledge of sexual misconduct claims involving ICs seminarians who failed to take appropriate action or conform to university policies “cannot serve in any SHU leadership position.”
However, Reilly was given a year’s sabbatical in 2022 before making a scheduled return to Seton Hall in 2023 as vice-provost for academics and Catholic identity. Less than a year later, in April 2024, he was announced as the new university president.
Cardinal Tobin’s announcement of a new independent investigation into the previous investigation called for clarification on “how the findings of these reports relate to Monsignor Joseph Reilly, including whether they were communicated to any and all appropriate personnel at the Archdiocese and Seton Hall University” — presumably including Tobin himself, since the university’s Board of Regents task force specifically informed Reilly that their recommendations would be communicated to the cardinal.
At the time of Reilly’s appointment as president last year, the chair of the university’s board of regents hailed him, saying there was “no one better suited to leading the university at this moment.”
During Reilly’s formal installation as president, Cardinal Tobin told him that “I have no doubt that you’re the right person at the right time for Seton Hall.”
In his statement on Monday, Tobin said that he had “not placed a timetable on this review by Ropes & Gray, nor have I restricted the firm from exploring any relevant facts or avenue of investigation.”
“A transparent review of the facts will best serve the interests of all involved and of those who have voiced a call for it,” the cardinal said.