Well, that's what happened on the fifth Sunday of Easter in an editorial by The Star-Ledger, the largest newspaper in New Jersey.
The basis for the call for resignation is found in a related story in The Star-Ledger: "Newark archbishop allows priest who admitted groping boy to continue working with children."
Writer Mark Mueller reports: Six years ago, to avoid retrial on charges that he groped a teenage boy, the Rev. Michael Fugee entered a rehabilitation program, underwent counseling for sex offenders and signed a binding agreement that would dictate the remainder of his life as a Roman Catholic priest.
Fugee would not work in any position involving
children, the agreement with the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office
states. He would have no affiliation with youth groups. He would not
attend youth retreats. He would not hear the confessions of minors.
But Fugee has openly done all of those things for
the past several years through an unofficial association with a Monmouth
County church, St. Mary’s Parish in Colts Neck, The Star-Ledger found.
Here's the full Star-Ledger editorial calling for Archbishop Myers to resign:
After all the Catholic Church has been through, it
is beyond infuriating that Newark Archbishop John J. Myers can be so
neglectful of his duty to protect children from sexual predators.
He should resign immediately and apologize to the
families whose children he left exposed, barring some stunning new
disclosure that could exonerate him in the face of the damning facts
presented by The Star-Ledger’s Mark Mueller in today’s edition.
The case concerns Michael Fugee, a priest who was
convicted in a sexual abuse case in 2003 after he confessed to fondling a
14-year-old boy, and being a compulsive masturbator obsessed with penis
size.
The conviction was overturned when a higher court found the judge had
given improper instructions to jurors. Instead of trying Fugee again, as
they should have, prosecutors allowed him to avoid jail by joining a
program for first offenders.
Part of the deal was an agreement that Fugee
signed, along with the archdiocese, committing all parties to keeping
Fugee away from minors.
Fugee was not to work in any position involving
children, or have any affiliation with youth groups. He could not attend
youth retreats, or even hear the confessions of children.
With the full knowledge and approval of Myers,
Fugee did all of those things. Look at the picture of him clowning
around with children in today’s paper, and it makes you want to scream a
warning. The agreement was designed to prevent exactly that.
This is not the first time Myers has shown
contempt for the safety of children in his flock.
While many bishops are
making sincere efforts to rehabilitate the church, Myers has shown a
pattern of leniency toward pedophiles, indifference to potential
victims, and a haughty disdain for those who dare to question his
judgment.
Before this latest flare-up with Fugee, Myers had
promoted him to an influential position in the church as co-director of
the office that helps guide young priests, sending precisely the wrong
message.
Earlier this year, Fugee was found to be saying Mass and living
at the rectory of a church in Rochelle Park. Parishioners had not been
told of his criminal past, so again, children were exposed.
In 2009,
Myers appointed Fugee chaplain of St. Michael’s Medical Center in
Newark, again without telling the hospital about Fugee’s restrictions.
Unlike some other bishops, Myers will not release the names of priests who have been credibly accused of abuse.
In 2004, he wrote a letter of recommendation to
six dioceses in Florida for one priest, a week after learning the priest
had been accused of assaulting a woman after breaking into her house.
The same year, he banned one priest from public ministry after
investigating an allegation that he had abused a boy, but did not notify
laypeople or other priests.
In 2007, he did not tell laypeople about a
credible finding of molestation against a priest working in Elizabeth
and Jersey City, information that was finally turned up by a victims’
group.
Fugee is, or at least was, the real danger. He
seems to think he can break the rules. It is Myers’ job to stop him, and
he is instead enabling him.
He is refusing to discuss any of this.
Our hope is
the prosecutors press him to do so.
He is a part to the agreement on
Fugee, which was signed by the archdiocese’s vicar general on behalf of
Myers, and which has clearly been broken.
In the meantime, for the sake of the children, Myers should step down.