I thought the sexual abuse complaints against former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, a Catholic holding a very high position in his church’s hierarchy, were limited to Massachusetts, where a man claimed that McCarrick had abused him at a wedding many years ago. I have written about abuse in Massachusetts and other New England states. Massachusetts has a long statute of limitations for people who do not live in that state, meaning McCarrick could be prosecuted even after all these years. His age, however—93 years old—caused the judge to rule McCarrick was not competent to stand trial for assault and battery and dismissed the case. A Wisconsin court made a similar ruling about McCarrick’s incompetence. After all these years, no cases against McCarrick.
The Massachusetts case was part of a long pattern of abuse by McCarrick in New Jersey, where he was Bishop of Metuchen from 1981 to 1986 and Archbishop of Newark from 1986 to 2000. The man who complained about McCarrick’s abuse at a wedding reception at Wellesley College in Massachusetts was James Grein, from Tenafly, New Jersey. Grein once said, “If he’s found guilty, I’m free.” Free? Free from all the horrors that Grein suffered his whole life due to twenty years of abuse by McCarrick. The abuse started when Grein was eleven years old in the 1960s, and McCarrick was a friend of the family. He was their “Uncle Ted.” McCarrick went to school with Grein’s uncle and was helped by Grein’s grandfather after McCarrick’s father died young.
Grein has “memories of abuse that engulfed him in a darkness of alcohol, drugs and suicidal thoughts.” Grein talks about the “chains around my arms and legs and mind all these years,” and asked the courts to unlock them by charging his abuser. Grein says he was the first baby McCarrick baptized, and McCarrick later groped him during the sacrament of penance. Grein traveled internationally with the cardinal and met some of his prominent associates. “My wedding day, in 1989, was the last day he abused me.” The marriage did not last, breaking up 17 months later. Grein says the years of violation kept him from having a healthy relationship with anyone else for the rest of his life.
Grein has been brave, leading arguments that sexual abusers should be held liable for their crimes. His complaints helped start the Massachusetts prosecution of McCarrick. And he has been vocal in his home state as it gradually moved to hold abusers and their employers liable in the Archdiocese of Newark, and the Dioceses of Camden, Metuchen, Paterson, and Trenton, New Jersey.
New Jersey Starts
Pennsylvania received national attention in 2018 for its grand jury reports exposing Catholic sexual abuse. Four New Jersey priests were named in the Pennsylvania grand jury report. “One went to prison. Another died awaiting trial. One was placed on leave, but escaped prosecution because the statute of limitations had expired. Another was removed from ministry and retired.” Because of Pennsylvania, New Jersey started an inquiry. In 2018, then New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal announced that he would examine sexual abuse complaints against the Catholic Church.
That was 2018. New Jerseyans are still questioning where the report is. No New Jersey grand jury report has been released. Everyone is wondering why not, and asking when there will be more action. The Clergy Abuse Task Force website mentions “a comprehensive review of the New Jersey Catholic dioceses’ compliance with a 2002 Memorandum of Understanding entered into with the Attorney General’s Office and various County Prosecutors’ Offices regarding policies and procedures for the dioceses to share information and cooperate regarding potential cases of sexual abuse.” There is a hotline number to call with reports of abuse and a website that also allows abuse to be reported. To this date, the Attorney General’s actions have resulted in one conviction and three indictments. Thomas Ganley, Brendan Williams, and Donato Cabardo were indicted. Ganley pled guilty to second degree sexual assault. Williams was acquitted of sexual molestation of a thirteen-year-old. Cabardo entered into a pre-trial intervention program.
In response to these discussions about abuse, in February 2019 the New Jersey dioceses released lists of names of priests who were credibly accused of abuse. New Jersey includes the Catholic Archdiocese of Newark, and the Dioceses of Camden, Metuchen, Paterson, and Trenton. ProPublica filed a full list of “NJ Catholic Clergy Accused of Sexual Assault.” The Jesuits, a religious order of priests, also released a list of 50 Jesuits who had been accused of abuse, including 10 in New Jersey. Nine of ten Jesuits worked at St. Peter’s Prep, Saint Peter’s University, or Jersey City’s St. Peter’s Parish.
Looking Back
Then, still in 2019, the New Jersey legislature opened a lookback window, which opened the courts to past abuse cases, no matter when the abuse had occurred. The window was two years long, running from December 1, 2019 until November 30, 2021. Any abuse victims could file suit during those years. The legislature also extended the deadline for future cases to plaintiff’s age 55 or 7 years after discovery of the abuse, whichever is later. Those age-55 cases can be filed after the window has closed. 55 is older than the earlier statutes of limitations. In 1992 the age cap was 20, which is age 18 plus two years.
As they released the names of abusers in 2019, the New Jersey Catholic Church started an Independent Victim Compensation Program (IVCP) in which the church would give money to victims. IVCP would keep the survivors out of court, and let the names of the victims remain private. The diocese where the abuser worked would pay the damages. If the settlement is accepted, the survivor cannot then sue the church, but he or she can talk about the program and the settlement.
The IVCP program accepted candidates on June 15, 2019, and started paying them money. By July 25, 2019, the church had received 44 applicants and offered to settle three cases. “The new fund gives New Jersey priest abuse victims a choice: Apply for a settlement offer from the new fund or file a civil lawsuit against the Catholic Church.” That is always a question in the Catholic cases. Will the church or the court provide more damages? Before this fund was started, the five dioceses had paid out $50 million in abuse cases. The IVCP fund was directed by Kenneth Feinberg and Camille Biros, prominent individuals who have worked in numerous other compensation funds; those two decided how much money survivors would receive. The church closed that fund in November 2022. Payments of more than $40 million were made to 348 victims. The recipients agreed not to sue the church. The church’s compensation fund received 718 claims; 127 were denied, 108 rejected the settlement, and 51 did not respond.
A North Jersey newspaper reported that 820 lawsuits were filed against the Catholic Church during the two-year window. They compiled a list of those lawsuits, which is reproduced here. About 250 Catholic clerics were named, and there were ten lawsuits against Cardinal McCarrick.
Survivors of abuse have argued that the dioceses have not updated their lists of abusers in all the years since 2019, instead sticking with the earlier numbers even as new cases are filed. While Newark’s and Metuchen’s lists have not changed, Camden added five priests and removed one, and Trenton and Paterson each added one abuser. The new Camden priests included Kenneth Johnston, Daniel James Norton, and John Lawrence O’Connor, who have died; Patrick Joseph Mulligan, who was defrocked; and Paul C. Wise, who was allowed to remain in the priesthood but barred from public duties. Camden removed Alfred Vasapolli from the 2019 list. The 1994 claim against Vasapolli was made in 1994, when he was no longer a priest, and when there was no review board to study his case. Because there have been no claims since 1994, the Camden Diocese thought they did not have reason to keep him on the list. Paterson added Franciscan John Hewetson to its list while Gregory D. Vaughan was added to Trenton’s.
The churches often argue that they cannot add the names of abusers while the cases are under litigation or settlement.
An analysis of the lookback window from NorthJersey.com found:
- There have been 432 suits filed against the Newark Archdiocese, 85 against the Paterson Diocese, 182 against Trenton and 70 against Metuchen. The Camden Diocese was sued 54 times before it declared bankruptcy last year. Some lawsuits name more than one diocese as defendants. Religious orders also have been named in many of the suits against dioceses.
- The Order of St. Benedict of New Jersey, which runs the Delbarton School in Morris Township, has been sued 36 times under the new law and has another pending case. There are 23 suits related to Bergen Catholic High School in Oradell — though the Edmund Rice Christian Brothers of North America, which oversees the school, can’t be sued, as part of a nationwide settlement agreement made years ago. The Salesians of Don Bosco have been sued 19 times, including five related to Don Bosco Prep in Ramsey, which it oversees. Paramus Catholic High School is named in 14 cases, all but one related to 1980s allegations against former ice hockey coach Bernard Garris.
- A little more than a third of the lawsuits make accusations against one or more of the 188 clerics listed by the state’s dioceses two years ago as having been credibly accused of abusing children. Additional accusations have been made against order priests, nuns, teachers, church employees and diocese clerics who were not on the lists.
- There are 251 people alleging they were abused when they were 10 years old or under—about 40% of cases against the state’s diocese in which the age of the victim was determined. One in seven lawsuits involved children who were 7 years old and under. Women are plaintiffs in one out of every 13 of the lawsuits.
- More than 80% of the allegations stem from incidents from the 1960s through the 1980s. More than 40 suits are related to allegations from the 1990s or later.”
Edmund Rice settled cases in a bankruptcy agreement in 2013, but Bergen Catholic did not join that settlement, probably because of the statute of limitations. They did settle 21 claims in 2015 for $1.9 million. Changing the statute opened them to lawsuits accusing John Chaney, Charles Irwin, and John L. O’Sullivan of abuse in the 1960s and 1970s.
Among the lawsuits filed are Christopher Allen’s against Cardinal McCarrick. Allen was last abused in 1986 as he was graduating from eighth grade, a month before McCarrick became Archbishop of Newark. Michael Reading explained that McCarrick abused him while he was a seminarian. Another boy from Hackensack filed against McCarrick on the first day that the window opened.
Peter Gerety, who was also Archbishop of Newark, was sued for abusing two girls in the 1970s and 1980s. One girl was abused when she was five years old. Gerety gave her family food and also abused her at the same time. Gerety is also accused of ignoring a complaint against Peter Cheplic, and of transferring a priest convicted of abuse in New Jersey to Missouri. Cheplic was accused of groping a 17-year-old student at Seton Hall. Cheplic told the student, “I can’t resist you. You are gorgeous.” There was another allegation against Gerety that the church rejected. The archdiocese paid $600,000 and $650,000 in settlement in two other Gerety cases.
Michael Brinkman, Sean Rooney, Joseph Maffei, and Alan Scheneman were accused of abuse at Don Bosco Prep. A New Jersey woman alleged that she and her brother were abused by Frank Nugent, a director at the Prep. Her brother later died while driving the Salesians’ car. She received a $250,000 settlement in 1998, as long as she signed a confidentiality agreement. The Salesians were involved in numerous lawsuits both inside and outside New Jersey.
Brooklyn Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio and priest Albert Mark were accused of abusing a New Jersey boy in the 1970s. DiMarzio had been bishop of Camden.
The newspaper also identified five priests who were accused in at least 12 lawsuits. John Capparelli, who was named in 20 lawsuits, was suspended in 1992 for abuse in the 1980s, but continued to teach in public schools. One complaint against him involved an 18-year-old student at Seton Hall. Timothy Brennan had 21 lawsuits against him for his conduct at the Delbarton School. Ten earlier claims against him had been settled by the church. A later settlement paid the victim’s family $1 million. St. Mary’s Abbey at Delbarton and the Order of Saint Benedict settled at least 13 lawsuits and paid $1 million in damages before the new cases arrived under the new statute of limitations. 45 lawsuits had been filed against the order since 2005. Benedict Worry was another monk accused of abuse there, along with Brennan. Monk Donal Fox and layman Giacomo Pagano were also named in the lawsuits for their abuse in the 1960s and 1970s. Kevin Bray, Justin Capato, Malachy Flavin, Richard Lott and Luke Travers were other monks accused of abuse.
A football star at Delbarton, Rodney Baron, said three monks abused him years ago—more than 150 times. He said he did not discuss the abuse at the time because he and his brothers were the only Black students at the school. He thought no one would believe any of his complaints of abuse. The monks were Manus Duffy, Brother Jonathan Michael Hunt, and Bruno Ugliano, who are now all dead. One priest sodomized Baron during a trip to the shore. He transferred to another school, where he remained a star football player.
Here’s a brief summary of lawsuits filed under the window:
There were, of course, many abuse cases that were resolved before 2019. Some failed because of charitable immunity. Some succeeded. Part II of this post will identify some of the older cases that survived, and look at some current cases that raise new legal issues for the archdiocese and archdioceses. It will also remind you that bankruptcy often interferes with the prosecution of sexual abuse cases.
