Will the release of names of accused priests in NJ restore church credibility?

The names are just ordinary. John and Michael and Robert and Peter and William and Thomas and Ken.

All Catholic priests.

All accused of abusing little boys and girls.

On Wednesday, after decades of CIA-like secrecy and obfuscation, the Catholic church in New Jersey finally opened its files and told the faithful in the pews what it knew about priests who had molested children.

“I wish to express my genuine sorrow to the victims and their families who were so profoundly betrayed,” Newark’s Cardinal Joseph Tobin wrote in a letter that accompanied the list. “On behalf of our Church, I beg your forgiveness. You have my solemn promise of prayers and support as you continue on your healing journey.”

In itself, the list is shocking – more than 60 names, just in the Newark Archdiocese, which includes roughly 1.3 million Roman Catholics in Bergen, Hudson, Essex and Union counties. By noon, the list had grown to nearly 200 priests across the state as New Jersey’s four smaller dioceses of Paterson, Metuchen, Trenton and Camden released names of priests accused of abuse.

Click here for the full list of names. 

At the same time, however, these lists– and, in particular, how many priests were named – should not shock anyone who has followed the sex-abuse crisis that has crippled the Catholic church for the past two decades, draining its finances and its moral credibility.

Church officials, in New Jersey and across the world, have known for years that far too many priests led secret lives in which they regularly abused some of the most vulnerable members of their flock.

The list of Newark Archdiocesan priests dates back to 1940.  It includes ordinary parish priests and others who became significant and respected leaders, not only within the church but in non-clerical fields. The archdiocese said all the cases had been "previously reported to law enforcement agencies."

One prominent name is former Newark Archbishop Theodore McCarrick, who was accused of regularly abusing seminarians studying at Seton Hall University but was nevertheless promoted to cardinal and placed in charge of the politically significant Archdiocese of Washington, D.C. McCarrick, now in retirement living in seclusion under church supervision, has since been stripped of his cardinal’s title by the Vatican.

Another prominent figure is the Rev. Charles Hudson, a well-known parish priest in Bergen County and former chaplain at Holy Name Medical Center, who became a nationally recognized leader in the hospice movement. Hudson died two decades ago. But the hospice he founded, the Center for Hope in Union County, is still considered a trend setter in the care of those who are dying. One of the center's facilities in Elizabeth is called "Father Hudson House."   

The release of names such as McCarrick and Hudson underscore just how damaging the sex abuse scandal has been to the church's reputation and what it sees as its mission to offer guidance on a wide range of social, political and moral issues.

Just a few weeks ago, in the midst of the partial shutdown of the federal government over President Donald Trump’s demand for a wall along the Mexican border, Cardinal Tobin wrote a passionate op-ed article for the The New York Times in which he called for more lenient treatment of immigrants. The article was part of Tobin’s unabashed effort to become a national voice in America’s immigration debate.   

“There are moral issues involved,” Tobin said in an interview about his stance on immigration. “I think the responsibility from a Christian standpoint is to welcome the stranger, to assist those in danger, certainly to offer love we owe to children and the mothers who carry them.”

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This week, however, Tobin has been pulled back to the church’s dark side – its sex-abuse crisis.

On Monday, he announced a special fund to compensate victims. On Wednesday, he released the names of priests accused of abuse.

“The revelations of clergy sexual abuse of minors throughout this past year have provoked feelings of shock, anger, shame, and deep sorrow throughout our Catholic community,” Tobin said in a statement Wednesday. “Victims, their families, and the faithful are rightfully outraged over the abuses perpetrated against minors. Additionally, the failure of Church leadership to immediately remove suspected abusers from ministry is particularly reprehensible."

In a later interview, Tobin said he hoped that the publication of the names would "display an ongoing commitment to be transparent and help bring healing to victims" as well as "restore trust in the leadership of the Catholic church."

In preparing to release the names, Tobin said he met with a number of abuse victims -- an experience he described as "gut wrenching."

But Tobin's quest to restore credibility in Catholic leaders faces major questions stemming from the church's penchant for secrecy when it comes to allegations that priests molested children.

Instead of calling police or defrocking abusive priests, bishops and other church leaders regularly often moved them to different parishes – a pattern that sometimes resulted in even more abuse.

Nevertheless, the fact that the files were finally pried open just a bit represents a significant change from the church’s long history of secrecy – and, sometimes, outright lies – when it comes to questions of behavior by priests.  

But while Wednesday’s release of names of abuser priests in New Jersey represents a renewed emphasis by the Vatican on transparency, the list is still not complete.

Not included were priests from some religious orders such as the Franciscans, Dominicans, Benedictines and Carmelites who served parishes or schools in New Jersey. Last month, the Jesuit order released names of 50 priests accused of abuse from Northeast states, including 10 who worked in New Jersey.

Also not included are the files on the priests that could offer some context on how many children were victimized and why bishops and other church officials did not impose some measure of discipline. And finally, there is no reporting yet by church officials on whether bishops or other Catholic leaders might be disciplined for helping to cover up the reports of abuse.

Such details may be forthcoming as part of an ongoing investigation by the state Attorney General’s office into abuser priests and a possible cover-up of their alleged crimes by church leaders. 

For now, the release of the names represents something of a watershed in church affairs.

Joseph Capozzi, who said he was abused as a child by a priest at St. Matthew's Church in Ridgefield, said he hopes the release will push the church officials to impose harsh penalties on abuser priests.

Capozzi's former parish priest, the Rev. Peter Cheplic, has lived in retirement for a number of years at a special home for aging priests in Rutherford and was even photographed in January celebrating Mass with Cardinal Tobin.  On Wednesday, the list by the archdiocese said that Cheplic had been "permanently removed from ministry."  But it was not clear if he was still living in the church-sponsored retirement home.

Capozzi, now 49 and a filmmaker and producer in New York City, said he would like more information from church officials on what it means for Cheplic to be removed from ministry. 

At the same time, however, Capozzi said he felt "vindicated."

"I don’t have to deal with making my voice heard again and getting angry," Capozzi said Wednesday.  "I wanted to see that name in print. Now it's confirmed that it is a credible accusation by me."

"I think what Tobin is trying to do is to acknowledge the fact that if we don’t deal with it in a credible way then we’ll never be able to move on," said the Rev. Alexander Santora, pastor of Our Lady of Grace Church in Hoboken. "I think that’s important so that people know there is no fudging, no duplicity. There’s a transparency."

It remains to be seen whether the release will be viewed as an act of transparency or whether it will stir up more questions.

"I think it's a step in the right direction," said the Rev. Kenneth Lasch, a former pastor in Metuchen who has become a nationally known advocate for abuse victims. 

But Lasch and other reformers said the church still has a long road ahead before it can escape the taint of the sex abuse scandal.

"More needs to be done," Lasch said.

A key question for the church now is whether this release of names is a step toward more openness or whether it is just an aberration.

"Maybe," said Lasch, "this will encourage more victims to come forward."