CAMDEN (NJ)
nj.com [New Jersey]
April 6, 2025
By Mark Crawford
For more than six years, lawyers for the Catholic Diocese of Camden quietly moved to squash the New Jersey attorney general’s ability to produce a detailed accounting of the sexual abuse of children committed by members of the clergy, and the institution’s efforts to conceal, harbor, and protect known sexual offenders — often putting additional children in harm’s way.
The Diocese successfully petitioned a lower court judge to seal the proceedings, so the public would not learn of their efforts, while New Jersey’s bishops publicly stated they would cooperate with the state’s investigation. The Camden Diocese lawyers argued that “the internal operations of the Catholic Church from long ago are not public affairs or conditions, are not imminent and pertinent.”
Furthermore, we also learned last month, they persuaded the judge that the state had no authority to issue a presentment against a private religious entity.
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As a survivor of clergy abuse by a priest, whom a Newark Catholic bishop already knew was a child abuser when my abuser was promoted to serve as the personal secretary of then-Archbishop Theodore McCarrick — the former defrocked cardinal now disgraced and credibly accused of adult and child molestation — I am outraged by such an argument.
The thought that they believe this is simply a matter of the church’s internal operations is appalling.
Additionally, the cardinal of the Archdiocese of Newark and bishops of Metuchen, Paterson, and Trenton said they were not party to this action, yet they too were well aware of the Camden bishop’s efforts to stop the Grand Jury and said nothing, while victims cried out for an accounting. It is crystal clear; the other New Jersey bishops are complicit in their silence.
The New Jersey Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on April 28-29. It must overturn the lower court’s ruling to show how deceitful the diocese has been.
Certainly, religious entities perform much good in our communities, but when their leaders fail to take action to stop or even prevent criminal actions, such as the sexual predation of children, they too must be held to account. This is a matter of extreme importance relevant to the safety of the general public.
Let’s take, for example, Osama Bin Laden. Had he lived and operated a religious nonprofit here in New Jersey as his followers set out to commit the atrocities of 9/11, would the state not have a right or obligation to investigate or present such evidence to the public?
What about Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman, the leader of a mosque in Jersey City, whose followers detonated a truck bomb in the garage of the World Trade Center on February 26, 1993? He was investigated, charged, and sentenced to life in prison many years after that event. Had he died years earlier, should the state have been precluded from investigating those actions? Or the actions of his followers who actually followed through with the bombing?
These criminals were still secretly living and working among us; was that not a threat to the public?
It is long past time to set the record straight. Those who perpetrated the abuse of our children and the institutional leaders who often knew about the acts of abuse these men perpetrated against children and unsuspecting adults must be revealed. These leaders chose to protect the institution over the safety of the public. It is a fact that not every child victim was a member of the Catholic Church, but all are obviously members of the public community.
The actions of the Camden Diocese to continue to shield offenders and prevent the public from knowing what they have done or failed to do to protect children from sexual offenders is of great importance to the public. No institution is above the law, nor can their own rules and regulations be allowed to circumvent public interests.
The state need not be complicit in the Diocese’s efforts to remain hidden, keeping knowledge of sexual predators and the actions of those bishops which kept the public at risk.
I pray the New Jersey Supreme Court will have the wisdom of Solomon and overturn the lower court’s ruling, allowing a detailed accounting of intentional efforts by an institution to deceive the public while children remain at risk of sexual abuse.
If the court upholds the lower court’s rulings, I urge people to contact their New Jersey lawmakers to either amend the laws that prevent such actions or to codify the attorney general’s right to investigate and report detailed findings on the sexual molestation of children by the church.