Four on Jesuit list of predator priests have New Jersey ties

Four Jesuit priests who have served in New Jersey institutions were named by the religious order Monday on a roster of leaders who have been credibly accused of sexually abusing minors.

The Maryland Province of the Society of Jesus — which encompasses eight states plus southern New Jersey — released a list of 29 priests who have been accused of abusing minors since 1950 while serving in schools, churches and colleges.

It was the third Jesuit province to release such a list. 

"With all that is going on in the church today, we want to be transparent with something that has caused so much pain," spokesman Mike Gabriel of the Maryland Province said in an interview Tuesday.

Most of the incidents occurred many years ago, and the majority of the people on the list are deceased, Gabriel said, adding that the living Jesuits who were accused are not serving in active ministry and must live in supervised housing. 

This publication follows the summer release of the explosive Pennsylvania grand jury report that detailed decades of child sexual abuse by hundreds of Catholic priests. 

Jesuits are a Roman Catholic order of priests comprising about 16,000 men internationally who take three vows: poverty, chastity and obedience. They are not part of a diocese.

Among the four predator priests who served in New Jersey institutions during their time with the Maryland Province was Michael Barber, who was assigned to St. Peter's University in Jersey City and pleaded guilty to a charge of harassment by offensive touching in 1994 in Strathmere, in Cape May County. He was subsequently removed from ministry and is now living in a restricted environment on a safety plan. 

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In addition, C. Jeffries Burton served at Richard Stockton College of New Jersey in Atlantic City, Atlantic Cape Community College and the Holy Spirit Rectory, and was accused of unwanted touching in 1982. He was removed from ministry in 2007 and died in 2011. 

John Duggan, who served at Our Lady of Lourdes Medical Center in Camden, was accused of multiple allegations of sexual abuse in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and Towson, Maryland. He died in 2004. 

John Bellwoar, who was assigned to St. Peter's Preparatory School in Jersey City, was accused of multiple allegations of sexual abuse in the 1950s and '60s. He died in 1993. 

The Jesuit website published a note of apology along with the roster of accused priests. "We are deeply sorry for the harm we have caused to victims and their families. We also apologize for participating in the harm that abuse has done to our church," said the Rev. Robert M. Hussey, the leader of the Maryland Province of Jesuits.

In the past 15 years, the Maryland Province "has instituted numerous reforms for responding to claims of abuse and striving to insure the safety of minors," said the letter, which also said the last known incident involving a minor in the Maryland Province happened in 2002. 

The disclosure was intended, in part, to prevent further abuse, Hussey said in his letter. "As an additional step towards transparency and accountability, we plan to have an external audit of our files to ensure that our previous reviews were both accurate and complete." 

James Goodness, a spokesman for the Newark Archdiocese, said that although he hesitated to comment on what other orders do, he believes more of them, "like the dioceses, are moving in this direction," toward greater transparency. 

Mark Crawford of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, known as SNAP, called it a step forward.

"We continue to call for full disclosure of all known clergy who have abused children, regardless of how long ago that may have occurred," he said.

Crawford added that it "becomes clear that the order of the day was to transfer these predator clerics from one parish assignment after another, particularly in the Northwest and Alaska, where the number of child victims of Jesuit clergy against the indigenous populations there are staggering." 

Mitchell Garabedian, a Boston-based attorney who has represented dozens of clergy abuse victims in New Jersey, said the release of the list was intended to "reduce the appearance of a criminal cover-up. ... These shameful revelations by the Jesuits are just too little, too late for many clergy sexual abuse victims and continue the criminal pattern of cover up by the Catholic Church." 

Two other Jesuit provinces have publicized the names of priests with credible allegations of sexual abuse against them. The Northeast Province, which encompasses New York, North Jersey, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut, plans to release a similar list on Jan. 15. 

The Maryland Province of Jesuits, formed in 1634, includes Pennsylvania, Delaware, Virginia, West Virginia, Georgia, Maryland, Washington, D.C., and North and South Carolina and has about 250 priests and brothers. 

Joseph Kibitlewski, who says he was abused by a Jesuit priest while he was a student at St. Peter's Prep high school in Jersey City in 1953, was gratified by the release of names, although he said it should have been done long ago. Kibitlewski brought his own allegations of abuse to the church several months ago but was rebuffed, he said. "They offered me money for counseling, but that was it," he said, adding that his emails were ignored. 

Kibitlewski said he scanned the list but was disappointed when he didn't see the name of his abuser. "I worked in law enforcement for over 20 years and I don't know where to go with this," he said.