Point Pleasant Priest Faces Charge of Abusing Teen

The Courier-Post
August 22, 2014

http://www.courierpostonline.com/story/news/crime/2014/08/21/point-pleasant-priest-faces-charge-abusing-teen/14420899/

A Catholic priest who once served in Moorestown was arrested Thursday on a sexual abuse allegation involving a 16-year-old filed by the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office.

The Rev. Romannilo S. Apura, pastor at St. Martha Parish in Point Pleasant, was charged in connection with an incident that took place in Trenton, according to a statement issued by the Diocese of Trenton.

Apura has served as pastor of St. Martha Parish since July 2012 and formerly served in the parishes of St. Joachim, Trenton; St. Agnes, Atlantic Highlands; St. Maximilian Kolbe of Holiday City at Berkeley; Our Lady of Good Counsel, Moorestown; St. Ann Parish, Keansburg, and St. Mary of the Assumption Cathedral, Trenton.

Bishop David M. O’Connell has suspended Apura pending the outcome of the investigation by law enforcement and recommendations from the Diocesan Review Board.

It is the only complaint that the diocese has received about Apura, and it has no connection to his current parish in Point Pleasant, according to the statement.