Advocates seek Vatican inquiry of Newark archbishop

NEW YORK -- Priests, nuns and canon lawyers who advocate for molestation victims urged Pope Francis on Wednesday to use the new Vatican tribunal he formed on negligent bishops to investigate the archbishop of Newark, New Jersey, who long has been accused of sheltering abusive priests.

The plea comes as Francis prepares for his first visit to the U.S. in September, a trip that will take place against the backdrop of the broad unfinished business of the molestation scandal.

The crisis erupted in 2002 with the case of one pedophile priest in the Archdiocese of Boston before spreading nationwide, then engulfing the Roman Catholic Church.

The advocates, who call themselves the Catholic Whistleblowers, said they will present evidence to the Vatican that Archbishop John Myers has been persistently hostile toward people who come forward with abuse allegations, and had left guilty clerics in parishes in the Newark archdiocese and in his previous post as bishop of Peoria, Illinois.

Myers has defended his record, noting he has removed many guilty priests, but he has been dogged by revelations about cases bungled on his watch in both states.

FILE - In this Tuesday, July 21, 2015 file photo, Pope Francis delivers his speech in the Synod Hall during a conference on Modern Slavery and Climate Change at the Vatican. Francis' first visit to the U.S. in September 2015 will take place against the backdrop of the broad unfinished business of the molestation scandal. The crisis erupted in 2002 with the case of one pedophile priest in the Archdiocese of Boston before spreading nationwide, then engulfing the Roman Catholic Church. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

"When Pope Francis last month announced the new tribunal, instantly -- within 24 hours -- we were saying, 'Myers has to be one,"' said the Rev. James Connell, a canon lawyer and retired priest from Milwaukee, who is part of the whistleblower group. "It's a place to start."

Three American dioceses -- Gallup, New Mexico, Milwaukee and St. Paul and Minneapolis -- are in bankruptcy court, trying to limit settlements with victims and preserve church assets; the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis is being prosecuted on charges of failing to protect children from a now-convicted priest; and the Diocese of Honolulu is facing a raft of new claims after Hawaii lawmakers temporarily abolished time limits on lawsuits over child sex abuse.

Francesco Cesareo, president of Assumption College in Worcester, Massachusetts, and head of the National Review Board, a panel formed by the U.S. bishops to monitor child safety in dioceses, said accountability for bishops is the most pressing issue for restoring trust, after revelations church leaders for decades had moved guilty clerics from parish to parish without warning parents or alerting police.

Hundreds of accused clergymen have been barred from serving as priests under the reforms the U.S. bishops enacted following intense public pressure in 2002, but there has been no direct penalty for bishops who covered up allegations and kept the clerics on the job.

A few prelates have stepped down. Bishop Robert Finn of Kansas City, Missouri, resigned last April, three years after he was convicted of failure to report suspected child abuse by a now-imprisoned priest.

Archbishop John Nienstedt of St. Paul and Minneapolis also resigned this year just days after the Vatican announced the new tribunal and after prosecutors filed child endangerment charges against the archdiocese.

Nienstedt said he wanted to give the archdiocese a "new beginning." Nienstedt also is accused of misconduct with adults. He said he left his post with "a clear conscience."

"The problem is that every time a new incident emerges, it erodes the good work that the bishops have done," Cesareo said in a phone interview.