NEW JERSEY
The Record
SUNDAY, JULY 28, 2013
BY JEFF GREEN
STAFF WRITER
The Record
ORADELL — On his final Sunday as pastor of St. Joseph Roman Catholic Church, the Rev. Thomas Iwanowski said he doesn’t believe the priest who stayed in the parish rectory for months is a child abuser.
Iwanowski is stepping down Wednesday amid a controversy over his friend, Monsignor Robert Chabak, who was accused of molesting a teenage boy during the 1970s and permitted to live in the church after his home was destroyed by Superstorm Sandy.
On Sunday, Iwanowski maintained that Chabak followed Newark Archdiocese restrictions that he stay in the living quarters except to attend Mass. He also said Chabak was not an abuser.
“I absolutely believe he’s not guilty of those charges, that he’s innocent,” Iwanowski said in an interview, adding that an accusation of child sexual abuse against a priest is the “equivalent of being guilty” because of the publicity that surrounds such cases.
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