ARCHBISHOP WHO OVERSEES MAPLEWOOD LET ABUSIVE PRIEST STAY, SPARKED $1.35 MILLION SETTLEMENT

Newark Archbishop John J. Myers, who oversees the Archdiocese of Newark that includes Maplewood, allowed a sexually abusive priest to continue to oversee youngsters in Illinois, according to the Star-Ledger.

That action resulted in a lawsuit that now requires the Archdiocese of Peoria, Ill, to pay the abused person $1.35 million.

The paper reports:

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Peoria will pay $1.35 million to settle a lawsuit that contends Newark Archbishop John J. Myers, Peoria’s former bishop, failed to take action against a sexually abusive priest in the mid-1990s, freeing him to molest again.

The settlement, reached late last week, is to be formally announced at a press conference Tuesday afternoon outside Myers’ office in Newark, said Jeff Anderson, the alleged victim’s attorney.

Anderson also will release a transcript of Myers’ deposition in the case. The deposition had been under court seal since 2010.

Anderson represents Andrew Ward, who has accused the Rev. Thomas Maloney, now deceased, of molesting him in Illinois in 1995 and 1996, when Ward was 8.

A year earlier, a woman told the diocese Maloney sexually abused her as a child, but the priest was permitted to remain in ministry, the suit contends. Myers also failed to notify police of the allegation, Anderson said.

Do you want to be paying a similar settlement here if this man stays in power?