A timeline of events involving two Jersey Shore homes used by Newark Archbishop McCarrick

By Abbott Koloff And Deena Yellin
Record and NorthJersey.com
September 08, 2020

https://www.northjersey.com/story/news/2020/09/08/theodore-mccarrick-timeline-jersey-shore-homes-archbishop-used/5656403002/

Fr. Francis Crine in 1977 at a dinner dance celebrating the 100th anniversary of St. James parish in Woodbridge.

Cardinal Theodore McCarrick bought a home in the Curtis Point section of Brick Township when he was forced to sell another beach house in 1997. Since sold, the new owner demolished the home after it was damaged in 2012 and built this house on the property, shown Friday, August 21, 2020.

Detail from the deed transferring the Curtis Point home from Walter Uszenski to St. James parish to satisfy a debt that the deceased pastor, Francis Crine, owed the parish.

Below is a timeline of events involving the two Jersey Shore homes to which Cardinal Theodore McCarrick had access while he was archbishop of the Newark Archdiocese. McCarrick was named the first bishop of the Metuchen Diocese in 1981, and became Newark's leader in 1986. He moved on to lead the Washington, D.C., Archdiocese in 2001. In 2019, he became the first American cardinal to be defrocked after allegations surfaced that he sexually abused children.

November 19, 1981 — Theodore McCarrick, an auxiliary bishop in the Archdiocese of New York, is installed as the first bishop of the newly created Metuchen Diocese. 

January 3, 1985 — The Metuchen Diocese purchases a home on Baltimore Boulevard in Sea Girt for $180,000. 

July 25, 1986 — McCarrick is installed as the archbishop of Newark. 

McCarrick:Ex-Cardinal McCarrick had second beach house linked to mysterious debt and unusual history

August 26, 1987 — Monsignor Francis Crine, who had worked for McCarrick as his director of personnel in the Metuchen Diocese and was pastor of St. James parish in Woodbridge, purchases a home on Curtis Point overlooking Barnegat Bay in Brick Township for $562,500. He owns two-thirds of the home, on Squan Beach Drive. The other third is owned by Walter Uszenski, the principal of the St. James parish school.  

January 29, 1988 — The Metuchen Diocese sells the Sea Girt home to the Newark Archdiocese for $275,000.  

Late 1980s — At least two seminary professors raise an alarm with superiors about McCarrick after seminarians allege the prelate sexually harassed them at the Sea Girt home, watching while they undressed and sharing a bed with them.

March 31, 1989 — Crine dies while visiting St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands, where he owns a home. His will leaves that home to Walter Uszenski and his wife. It also leaves Crine’s share of the Curtis Point home to Uszenski. 

September 30, 1989 —  Crine’s estate transfers full ownership of the Curtis Point house to Uszenski for $1. 

October 2, 1989 — Uszenski transfers the Curtis Point home to St. James Church “to satisfy a debt of decedent Francis A. Crine,” according to the deed. The sales price is listed as $685,000. But an attorney for Crine’s estate said he doesn’t believe money changed hands. 

1994 — A priest tells Metuchen Diocese officials that he was sexually abused years before by McCarrick when the priest was a seminary student, according to a New York Times report.

November 11, 1994 — St. James parish transfers ownership of the Curtis Point home to the Metuchen Diocese for $1. 

January 27, 1995 — A second mortgage on the Curtis Point home that had been taken out by Crine and Uszenski in 1988 for $120,000 is stamped as having been paid.

April 4, 1997 — The Metuchen Diocese sells the Curtis Point home to the Archdiocese of Newark for $386,000.  

August 14, 1997 — After apparent pressure from Vatican officials over the alleged seminarian abuse by McCarrick, the Newark Archdiocese sells the Sea Girt home to a private party for $349,000. 

December 11, 1997 — The first mortgage taken out on the Curtis Point home by Crine and Uszenski in 1987 for $327,000 is stamped as paid.

January 3, 2001 — McCarrick is installed as the Archbishop of Washington, D.C.  

March 22, 2002 – The Newark Archdiocese sells the Curtis Point home to a private party for $750,000.  

May 1, 2002 — The Newark Archdiocese purchases a home in Franklin Township, Hunterdon County, for $700,000 as a weekend retreat and retirement home for McCarrick's successor, Archbishop John J. Myers, who later adds a wing with an indoor swimming pool. 

2005 — The Newark Archdiocese and the Metuchen Diocese come to a settlement agreement with a former seminary student who alleged he was abused by McCarrick at the Sea Girt home. They settle another claim of abuse by a seminarian in 2007. 

May 16, 2006 — McCarrick retires from the Washington Archdiocese at the age of 75, the required age of retirement for bishops. 

June 20, 2018 — It is announced that McCarrick has been removed from ministry after church officials said they received a credible allegation that he sexually abused a child. At the same time, Newark Archbishop Joseph Tobin reveals two settlements with seminarians from more than a decade before, and a third complaint that did not lead to a settlement.

February 13, 2019 — McCarrick, then 88 years old, is defrocked, which means he is removed from the clerical state in a process known as laicization.