The Dialog

By Catholic News Service

NEWARK, N.J.—  A priest of the Archdiocese of Newark resigned from active ministry May 2 after reports surfaced of his being with minors in apparent violation of a court’s memorandum of understanding that forbids him from contact with underage people.

The resignation of Father Michael Fugee, 53, was accepted by Archbishop John J. Myers of Newark. Calls have continued for Archbishop Myers to resign for having allowed Father Fugee to return to active ministry in 2009 despite his past.

Father Fugee had been convicted in 2003 of criminal sexual contact. He was accused of inappropriate contact with a boy four times in 1999 and 2000 while engaging in wrestling sessions in the boy’s home.

The priest appealed the conviction, saying he had lied to investigators about inappropriately touching the teen in order to return home more quickly. The conviction was vacated on other grounds, but the memo of understanding calls for Father Fugee not to have any unsupervised contact with children as long as he remained a priest. The memorandum arose from a court-ordered sex offender program he underwent to avoid retrial.

“For the good of the church and for my peace, I have requested permission to leave public exercise of my priestly ministry,” Father Fugee said in his resignation letter.

“In conscience, I feel it necessary to make clear to all that my actions described in recent news stories were outside of my assigned ministry within the archdiocese. The leadership of the Archdiocese of Newark, especially Archbishop John Myers, did not know or approve of my actions. My failure to request the required permissions to engage in those ministry activities is my fault, my fault alone.”

Archbishop Myers appointed Father Fugee last October as co-director of the archdiocese’s Office of Continuing Education and Ongoing Formation of Priests, which sparked criticism from advocates for victims of clerical sexual abuse. Archbishop Myers had earlier appointed Father Fugee as director of the Office of the Propagation of the Faith, a position he also held until his resignation.

But when the Newark Star-Ledger in April unearthed evidence that showed Father Fugee in apparent violation of the memorandum, the controversy was generated anew, leading to the priest’s resignation. Photos surfaced showing Father Fugee on several retreats with teenagers.

While the archdiocese had said Father Fugee was working under supervision, it later acknowledged the priest had not asked permission to be part of the retreats.

“The activities written about in recent news stories were not part of his assigned ministry. Had the archdiocese known about them at the time, permission to undertake them would not have been granted,” said a May 3 statement from the archdiocese.

Even before Father Fugee resigned, Bishop David M. O’Connell of Trenton barred him from any future activities in that diocese, according to the Bergen County Record.

The National Catholic Reporter, in a May 6 account, said that on May 4, letters were read at weekend Masses at St. Mary Church in Colts Neck, N.J., about the resignation of pastor Father Thomas Triggs and parish youth ministers Amy and Mike Lenehan. The Lenehans knew Father Fugee and invited him to be part of the retreats in question. The priest and the youth ministers added they did not know of Father Fugee’s ministerial restrictions.

Under the terms of Father Fugee’s resignation, archdiocesan spokesman Jim Goodness told the Star-Ledger, Father Fugee no longer has authority to celebrate Mass, perform sacramental ministry or represent himself as an active priest.

The Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office launched an investigation after the Star-Ledger alerted the agency. Assistant Prosecutor Demetra Maurice, who authored the agreement, told the newspaper that Father Fugee could face civil penalties, criminal charges or both.

Among those calling for Archbishop Myers to resign were state Sen. Barbara Buono, a Democrat, considered a potential candidate for New Jersey governor, and Mark Crawford, New Jersey director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.

By TheDialog

CAMDEN, N.J. — Bishop Dennis J. Sullivan vowed to lead as a pastor, pledged that the church will never abandon the city of Camden and offered a greeting to Hispanics in fluent Spanish during his visit to the diocese after his appointment by Pope Benedict XVI.

His comments came as he was introduced Jan. 8 as the eighth bishop of Camden at a news conference in the Camden Diocesan Center soon after the appointment was announced in Washington by Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, papal nuncio to the U.S.

Bishop Sullivan, an auxiliary bishop in the Archdiocese of New York since 2004, succeeds Bishop Joseph A. Galante, 74, whose resignation was accepted by the pope six months before he turned 75, the age bishops are required by canon law to submit their resignation to the pope.

Bishop Galante resigned for reasons of ill health. He has been undergoing dialysis since being diagnosed with kidney disease in 2011.

“I joyfully welcome you to the wonderful people of God of this diocese,” Bishop Galante said in presenting Bishop Sullivan. “I trust you will come to love them as I do.”

Bishop Sullivan, 67, said he recently visited Rome, where he had made of point of visiting Contarelli Chapel in the church of San Luigi dei Francesi to see Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio’s painting “The Calling of St. Matthew.” The work, an image of contrasting shadows and light completed in 1600, depicts the moment at which Jesus calls Matthew to follow him. Meeting Jesus and pointing to his own chest, Matthew, a tax collector, has a look of astonishment on his face.

Auxiliary Bishop Dennis J. Sullivan of New York and Bishop Joseph A. Galante of Camden, N.J., smile during a Jan. 8 press conference in Camden. Bishop Sullivan was named the new bishop of Camden that day by Pope Benedict XVI after Bishop Galante resigned for health reasons. (CNS photo/James A. McBride, Catholic Star Herald)

Bishop Sullivan said he felt the same reaction to his appointment to lead the Camden Diocese. But also as in the painting, he said, he felt the light of Christ touching him.

A native of the Bronx, Bishop Sullivan has spent 22 years as a pastor in New York and Larchmont, N.Y. He said he would bring a pastor’s sensibility to the chancery in Camden. He also said that he sees strength of the church in the local parishes.

Like many other dioceses, Camden has undergone an extensive pastoral planning process that reduced the number of parishes from 132 to 70. Bishop Sullivan has been instrumental in New York’s own ongoing reorganization, and he said he knows how difficult, and how necessary, such changes are.

Bishop Sullivan, who noted that he once served at a parish in the Bronx in an extremely poor area, received applause when he said, “the church must walk with the poor and never abandon the city of Camden.”

In addition to offering a message in Spanish, the bishop stressed that Hispanic Catholics are not simply Catholics who speak a different language but members of the church with their own sensibilities, gifts and customs.

Noting that this year has been designated a Year of Faith by the pope, Bishop Sullivan said he is “walking through the door of faith.”

“I know I don’t need to walk alone,” he said. “I walk with the Lord and in the goodly company of the faithful.”

Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York welcomed the appointment in a Jan. 8 statement, saying Bishop Sullivan has been “my right hand” in serving as vicar general for the archdiocese. The cardinal said Bishop Sullivan regularly shared “his wise counsel and insights” stemming from his 40-plus years as a priest in the archdiocese.

At the time of his appointment to Camden, he was serving as vicar general of the New York archdiocese.

Cardinal Edward M. Egan, who preceded Cardinal Dolan and consecrated Bishop Sullivan after his appointment as a bishop in 2004 while he was archbishop of New York, commended his colleague for his commitment to the faithful of Asian and Latin American heritage as well as to needy people.

“I look forward to assisting Bishop Sullivan in any way I can over the years that lie ahead, particularly through my prayers for him and the people he will be shepherding,” Cardinal Egan said in a statement Jan. 8.

A native of Philadelphia, Bishop Galante was ordained in 1964 and served in the archdiocese until he was named by Pope John Paul II in 1986 to be undersecretary for the Congregation for Religious and Secular Institutes, now called the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.

He was named auxiliary bishop of San Antonio in 1992 and in 1994 became bishop of Beaumont, Texas, before serving as coadjutor bishop of Dallas beginning 2000. He returned to the East Coast in 2004 when he was named bishop of Camden.

Peters is managing editor of the Catholic Star Herald, newspaper of the Diocese of Camden, N.J.

By Catholic News Service

METUCHEN, N.J. — Retired Bishop Edward T. Hughes of Metuchen, N.J., who was described as an untiring and outspoken defender of life, died Christmas Day. He was 92.

A funeral Mass was scheduled for Jan. 4 in the Cathedral of St. Francis of Assisi in Metuchen. Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick, retired archbishop of Washington, will celebrate the liturgy.

Retired Bishop Edward T. Hughes of Metuchen, N.J., who was described as an untiring and outspoken defender of life, died Christmas Day. He was 92.
(CNS photo/courtesy Diocese of Metuchen)

Bishop Paul G. Bootkoski of Metuchen mourned the bishop’s death in a Dec. 26 statement, describing him as a “faithful and humble servant” of God.

“Bishop Hughes was an untiring and outspoken defender of all human life and an implacable foe or racism and bigotry. His legacy to the people of Metuchen will be his uncompromising witness, given with gentleness but never wavering,” Bishop Bootkoski said.

Known as a strong advocate for Catholic education, Bishop Hughes also was a much-sought retreat leader, Bishop Bootkoski added.

The spiritual leader of the Metuchen Diocese noted that, despite serious illness during the last year, Bishop Hughes participated in the diocese’s annual Respect Life Mass and the ordination of three priests and continued to administer the rite of confirmation.

“The whole thrust of Bishop Hughes’ ministry was building up the faith in the people of God. He felt driven to preach the word of God and, like Blessed John Paul II, he showed us all how to endure suffering. He always appreciated and cherished the gift of life, given to him by God,” Bishop Bootkoski added.

Cardinal McCarrick described his late friend as someone who gave the people of the diocese a “real sense of holiness and an ideal to strive for, the ideal of service and the ideal of living in the presence of God.”

“Perhaps Bishop Hughes’ greatest gift was the gift of himself,” Cardinal McCarrick said in a statement released by the Metuchen Diocese. “He gave himself totally and absolutely. There was nothing more important in his life than to serve the people of Metuchen.”

Born Nov. 13, 1920 in Lansdowne, Pa., Bishop Hughes was named the second bishop of Metuchen in December 1986 after serving for 10 years as an auxiliary bishop in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1947 in Philadelphia.

By The Dialog

Matt Franck, director of the Simon Center on Religion and the Constitution in Princeton, N.J., will speak on “Defending Life and Liberty in a Secular Age,” at the second annual diocesan workshop for pro-life leaders sponsored by the diocesan Respect Life Committee on Sept. 29 at St. Polycarp Parish in Smyrna.

All are invited to the workshop, which will begin with registration at 9 a.m. Franck’s talk is scheduled for 10 a.m. Father Steven P. Hurley, diocesan chancellor and secretary for pastoral services, will be the homilist and celebrant of a Mass at 11:15.

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By Cindy Wooden

Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY — Although she was never canonized, St. Hildegard of Bingen is to be added to the Catholic Church’s formal list of saints, and Catholics worldwide may celebrate her feast day with a Mass and special readings by order of Pope Benedict XVI.

The Vatican announced May 10 that the pope formalized the church’s recognition of the 12th-century German Benedictine mystic, “inscribing her in the catalogue of saints.” The same day, the pope advanced the sainthood causes of 19th-century U.S. Bishop Frederic Baraga of Marquette, Mich., and of Sister Miriam Teresa Demjanovich, a member of the Sisters of Charity of St. Elizabeth in Convent Station, N.J., who died in 1927.

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By Mark Pattison

Catholic News Service

A turret fell from the main building at St. Gregory’s University in Shawnee, Okla., during a rare earthquake the night of Nov. 5.

The 5.6-magnitude quake also damaged the other three turrets that sat atop the 98-year-old building. All of the turrets will have to be taken down, said university president D. Gregory Main.

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