NEWARK—A former pastor at St. Andrew Church in Westwood who resigned in 2018 amid allegations of sexual misconduct from over three decades ago has been reassigned as chaplain to a Catholic resource facility in Newark that offers services to help pregnant, post-abortion, and sexual abuse victims “who need a safe and supportive environment.”
Former pastor James Weiner was found to be working at The Mercy House, a “family-oriented resource and referral center in the heart of Newark with a focus on assisting pregnant and parenting women who need a safe and supportive environment.”
The center also provides services and programs for post-abortion and sexual abuse healing.
Following a sexual abuse allegation raised anew in 2018 by the Rev. Desmond Rossi, Weiner stepped down from his new position as pastor at St. Andrew voluntarily, eventually resigning before an interim and then a new pastor was appointed at the church.
Rossi’s charges against Weiner and another priest were first lodged in 1998, about a decade after the sexual abuse was alleged to have occurred.
Throughout 2019 and into early 2020, dozens of parishioners regularly demonstrated and protested in front of the Washington Avenue church, calling for a new pastor to steer the church — and to restore a 40-year-old clothing donation ministry that they alleged had been taken over by archdiocesan officials.
Weiner’s reassignment to the Newark-based Mercy House was not announced by the archdiocese, neither were any details of its investigation into sexual abuse allegations provided by the church, or its spokesperson.
Instead, Rossi found the priest’s name on The Mercy House website several weeks ago and called the Bergen Record to report Weiner’s new position. The newspaper revealed Weiner’s new position after confirming it with an archdiocesan spokeswoman.
Rossi’s accusation of sexual abuse, raised anew in 2018 after he found out a church investigative committee did not talk to a friend he had confided in about the abuse incident, was instrumental in pressuring Weiner’s departure from St. Andrew’s Church.
Only after Rossi found Weiner’s name on the Mercy House website did the archdiocese confirm the priest’s new assignment. However, they declined to release any information on its investigation of Weiner or its outcome to Pascack Press.
“The Archdiocese of Newark has returned Father James Weiner to ministry to serve the needs of the poor and vulnerable. A re-review of an allegation of misconduct with an adult originally reported almost 20 years ago has concluded and the matter regarding Father Weiner has been closed,” Maria Margiotta, a Newark Archdiocese spokesperson, told us Aug. 23.
Rossi is a priest in Glen Falls, New York. He has charged that Weiner and another man sexually assaulted him in 1988 when they were students at Immaculate Conception Seminary at Seton Hall University.
Rossi alleged the abuse occurred while he was at St. Benedict’s Academy in Newark.
Pascack Press asked Margiotta if the archdiocese had notified St. Andrew parish about Weiner’s new assignment, what Weiner was doing while the archdiocese was further investigating the sexual abuse allegation against him, and for the results of its investigation.
Margiotta answered no questions and did not disclose when Weiner started at Mercy House. Pressed for details, Margiotta referenced her statement and added, “It is our single statement regarding Fr. Weiner. I thank you for your interest and understanding.”
Parishioner Greg Ryan, who earlier criticized the church’s actions, said the revelation of Weiner’s new assignment was disturbing. “He shouldn’t be in the ministry; these [priests] should all be weeded out,” Ryan said when asked about Weiner’s assignment to a Catholic social services agency that helps out sexual abuse victims and women dealing with pregnancy/abortion concerns.
He added, “It’s amazing that the [Catholic] church does this now. Everybody just has questions about what happened. Why don’t they just tell us what happened [with Weiner’s investigation] and it will go away.”
Ryan noted that “rotating” priests accused of inappropriate behavior and sexual abuse did not work well in the past. “They’re bringing down the church by doing this. It’s a hard road for the church to recover from these bad [priests].”
The prior archdiocese spokesperson, James Goodness, told NorthJersey.com in 2018 that Weiner and the other priest alleged to have abused Rossi had repeatedly denied the abuse charges.
Weiner was ordained in 1989 and served at St. Luke’s Roman Catholic Church in Ho-Ho-Kus and at St. Elizabeth of Hungary in Wyckoff.
The second priest, now deceased, who was charged with abuse also served at several churches around Bergen County.
Weiner was named pastor of St. Andrew in January 2018, and parishioners soon found out about accusations about Weiner.
However, Weiner reportedly denied all sexual abuse allegations, some parishioners told Pascack Press in 2018.
Not on statewide ‘credibly-accused’ list
Although Rossi said he was told that a church committee had found allegations against Weiner credible, Weiner was not listed on a list of 188 “credibly accused” priests released by Catholic archdioceses statewide in early 2019.
In mid-February 2019, Pascack Press reported extensively on the statewide release of the list of 188 credibly accused priests, which named 10 former priests from Pascack and Northern Valley area congregations as credibly accused sexual abusers, and in some cases, multiple abusers.
Of the 10 priests serving in local parishes, five were deceased and five were still living then, though no information was provided about residences, living arrangements, or monitoring of these former priests.
Three of five living priests found guilty of abusing minors served at Church of the Assumption in Emerson, including James T. Benedetto, Michael Campanlonga, and Robert Stauffer. Campanlonga was found guilty of abusing “multiple” victims, which the list did not enumerate.
In addition, Francis T. Malone served at St. Pius X Roman Catholic Church in Old Tappan and Michael M. Walters served at Sacred Heart in Haworth. Malone abused one victim and Walters abused “multiple” victims, with no specifics provided by the list.
Deceased priests guilty of abusing minors included John Morel, who served at St. Andrew in Westwood; Eugene Heyndricks, who served at Our Lady of Mercy in Park Ridge; Charles Hudson at Our Lady of Mercy in Park Ridge; John Komar, who served as chaplain at Englewood Hospital; and Joseph DiPeri, who served at St. Cecilia School in Englewood.
Morel, Heyndricks and Komar were found guilty of abusing multiple minors, and Komar was further found guilty of possessing and/or distributing child pornography.
What the 2019 lists didn’t provide
The lists of credibly accused priests, published online, did not provide years the priests served in parishes listed, nor the year that each priest was permanently removed from ministry, laicized or in many cases, deceased.
Statewide, the five Catholic archdioceses released the names of 188 priests who were found to be credibly accused of sexual abuse of a minor—79 were still living and 109 were deceased then.
For more information, see “Credibly Accused Priests Named — Including from Emerson, Westwood, Park Ridge, Haworth, Old Tappan, Englewood,” Feb. 22, 2019, thepressgroup.net.