The Diocese of Metuchen was established on November 19, 1981. The mother church of the diocese is Saint Francis of Assisi Cathedral in Metuchen. As of 2023, the current bishop of Metuchen is James Checchio.
The French envoy François Barbé-Marbois, writing from Philadelphia in 1785, estimated the Catholic population in the new States of New York and New Jersey at approximately 1700, with over half of them living in New Jersey. Priest traveled to New Jersey from St. Peter's Parish in New York City to provide ministry. The opening of mines, furnaces, glass works, and other industries attracted more Catholic immigrants to New Jersey.[2]
Responding to the population growth in New Jersey, the Vatican in 1853 erected the Diocese of Newark, taking its territory from Philadelphia and New York. The Vatican in 1881 established the Diocese of Trenton, with its territory coming from the Diocese of Newark. The Metuchen area would remain part of the Diocese of Trenton for the next 100 years.[5]
1981 to 1997
On November 18, 1981, Pope John Paul II erected the Diocese of Metuchen, taking Middlesex, Somerset, Hunterdon and Warren Counties from the Diocese of Trenton.[6] The pope named Auxiliary Bishop Theodore McCarrick of New York as the first bishop of the new diocese.
During his tenure, McCarrick erected new parishes in Perth Amboy, Califon, Skillman, Old Bridge, and Three Bridges.[7] He also oversaw the development of the Diocesan Council of Catholic Women, and the Bishop's Annual Appeal McCarrick also established ministries for African-Americans, Hispanics, anti-abortion rights activities, and the disabled.[7] He became archbishop of Newark in 1986.
To replace McCarrick, John Paul II named Auxiliary Bishop Edward Hughes of Philadelphia as the second bishop of Metuchen.[8] The diocese celebrated its 10th anniversary in 1991 by awarding its first Regina Nostra medals to outstanding lay leaders. Hughes retired in 1997. In 1996, the first issue of The Catholic Spirit, the diocese's official newspaper, was published.
1997 to present
John Paul II in 1997 appointed Monsignor Vincent Breen from the Diocese of Brooklyn as the next bishop of Metuchen.[9] In 1998, the diocese launched its website. In 1999, Breen started a diocesan capital campaign, "In Service to the Kingdom."The diocese in 2001 opened Immaculate Conception School in Annandale for pre-K through fourth grade. The following school year, the school expanded enrollment through eighth grade. Also in 2001, the diocese dedicated the St. John Neumann Pastoral Center in Piscataway.
After Breen resigned in 2003, John Paul II selected Auxiliary Bishop Paul Gregory Bootkoski that same year as the next bishop of Metuchen.[10] The diocese's annual Blue Mass was re-established in 2003. In 2005, the diocese created the Diocesan Youth Day hired a full-time vocations director, and opened the House of Discernment for men considering the priesthood. In 2006, Bootkoski launched the diocese's first synod.
After Bootkoski retired in 2016, Pope Francis appointed Monsignor James Checchio, rector of the Pontifical North American College in Rome, as the new bishop of Metuchen.[11] As of 2023, Cheechio is the current bishop of Metuchen.
Sexual abuse
1990 to 2000
In August 1997, police arrested Michael Santillo, who served at St. Mary's Church in Perth Amboy before leaving the priesthood in 1992. He was accused of forcing oral sex on a 13-year-old altar boy on several occasions in 1987.[12] Santillo pleaded guilty in June 1999 to one count of aggravated sexual assault and was sentenced later that year to 10 years in prison.[13]
Reverend John M. Banko from Mary Mother of God Church in Hillsborough was charged in August 2001 with first- degree aggravated sexual assault and child endangerment. He was accused in 1999 of forcing oral sex on a 11 year old boy after mass on two occasions in 1993 or 1994. The police investigation revealed other allegations of Banko improperly touching other children.[14] He was convicted of sexual assault in December 2002 and sentenced to 15 years in prison.[15][16]
2000 to 2010
In 2003, Bishop Bootkoski established the Office of Child and Youth Protection and implement the Protecting God's Children program. That same year, he approved an $800,000 settlement to ten victims of sexual abuse by five clergy, including Santillo and Banko.[17] According to Cardinal Donald Wuerl, nobody from the Diocese of Metuchen informed him of these settlements, even after the retired McCarrick began living on the grounds of a seminary in the Archdiocese of Washington.[18]
Reverend Tomasz Adam Zielinski from Christ King Church in Manville was arrested on sexual assault charges in July 2008. A 16 year old girl who had been sitting next to Zielinski on a flight from Poland to the United States accused him of fondling her and attempting to unzip her pants.[19] He pleaded guilty and was sentenced in January 2009 to one year in federal prison.[20]
2010 to 2020
In July 2018, former priest Robert Ciolek, in an interview with the New York Times, accused Cardinal McCarrick of sexually molesting him in the 1980s when Clolek was a seminarian and McCarrick was bishop of Metuchen. McCarrick had been removed from ministry in June 2018 when the Archdiocese of New York determined that an accusation of him sexually abusing 16 year old boy 50 years earlier was credible. At this time, it was revealed that in 2005 and 2007, the Diocese of Metuchen, along with the Archdiocese of Newark, secretly paid financial settlements to Clolek and another priest abused by McCarrick.[18]
In September 2018, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops announced an investigation of sexual abuse in the Diocese of Metuchen along with the other New Jersey dioceses. It was widely assumed that the McCarrick allegations had triggered this move by the bishops.[21] McCarrick was removed from ministry in 2018 and laicized in 2019.
In February 2019, the diocese released a list of 11 clergy with credible accusations of sexual abuse against minors. These clergy had been reported to law enforcement agencies.[22]
In December 2019, the New Jersey Legislature passed a law allowing a two-year legal lookback window, enabling sexual abuse lawsuits that were previously barred by the statute of limitations.[23][24] That same month, James Grien, a New York resident, sued the diocese. He claimed McCarrick started abusing him as a minor when McCarrick was a priest in New York. As an adult, Grien later moved to the Diocese of Metuchen, where he alleged that McCarrick resumed the abuse. Grien accused the diocese of committing gross negligence.[24][25][26]
2020 to present
In 2020, the diocese updated its list of accused clergy to add seven more names. In July 2020, an anonymous man sued the diocese, claiming he had been sexually abused by McCarrick. The plaintiff, then a student with the Archdiocese of Newark,[27] maintained that McCarrick started abusing him when he was 14 in 1982 with the assistance of other priests.[28] The plaintiff revealed that the Diocese of Metuchen owned a beach house in Sea Girt on the Jersey Shore where McCarrick and other priests engaged in “open and obvious criminal sexual conduct” . The diocese allegedly covered up this illegal activities.[27][28] The lawsuit stated that boys were assigned different rooms in the house and paired with adult clergymen.[28] The plaintiff also named three other diocesan priests. as sexual abusers.[28] The diocese in 1988 sold the beach house to the Archdiocese of Newark.
Two new sexual abuse lawsuits were file against the diocese in September 2020:
One lawsuit accused Brother Regis Moccia of the Brothers of the Sacred Heart of sexually abusing a 13 year old boy for one year, starting in 1994, at St. Joseph High School in Metuchen.
The second lawsuit alleged that Reverend Patrick H. Barrett sexually abused a 10 year old boy at St. Anthony of Padua Church in Woodbridge during the mid-1980s.[29]
On December 1, 2020, it was revealed that the Diocese of Metuchen was the defendant of one of more than 230 sex abuse lawsuits filed within a period of one year against New Jersey Catholic dioceses.[30]
Bishops of Metuchen
Theodore Edgar McCarrick (1981-1986), appointed Archbishop of Newark 1986, Archbishop of Washington 2000, cardinal 2001, removed from ministry 2018, laicized 2019
The coat of arms for the Diocese of Metuchen contains two silver quadrants and two blue quadrants. The four quadrants are separated by a blue cross. One gold quadrant contains a blue crowned M, the second gold quadrant contains a red tongue of fire.
The four quadrants represent the four counties in the diocese.
The blue cross comes from the coat arms of the Diocese of Trenton.
The red tongue of fire symbolizes the Lenni Lenape word for firewood, metachen, along with the descent of the Holy Spirit to earth on the Pentecost holy day.
The crowned M symbolizes Mary, mother of Jesus, the principal patroness of the diocese.[1] The crowned M also appears on the coat of arms of former Cardinal McCarrick and Pope John Paul II.
