31°
One victim claims in a lawsuit that he was molested by McCarrick and three other priests during overnight stays at the then-Bishop's home in Monmouth County, the New York Post reports.
Last year, Pope Francis defrocked McCarrick after a church investigation found he sexually abused minors and adult seminarians.
The suit was filed Tuesday night in New Jersey Superior Court in Middlesex County against the Diocese of Metuchen, the Archdiocese of Newark -- where McCarrick served as bishop and archbishop, respectively -- as well as against several parochial schools.
The boy is reported to have been raised by a devout Roman Catholic family and was a student at St. Francis Xavier in Newark and Essex Catholic in East Orange.
Identified as “Doe 14” in the suit, the victim alleges the abuse began in 1982 when he was 14 years old.
“In the night, with the assistance of others, McCarrick would creep into this kid’s bed and engage in criminal sexual assault of him, whispering, ‘It is OK,'” said Jeff Anderson, an attorney for the now-53-year-old victim. "All of it cloaked in papal power."
Other priests allegedly served as procurers of young boys for then-Bishop McCarrick who “assigned sleeping arrangements, choosing his victims from the boys, seminarians and clerics present at the beach house,” the lawsuit says. Other boys allegedly brought to McCarrick’s home were “assigned to different rooms and paired with adult clerics,” the suit says.
The victim claims he was abused at McCarrick's Sea Girt beach house by priests Michael Walters, John Laferrera and Gerald Ruane -- who is dead. Lafererra and Walters are listed as having been “permanently removed from ministry.”
The three men were among a list of 188 clergy members in New Jersey accused of sexual misconduct.
"Doe 14" also claims he was sexually abused as an 11-year-old altar boy at St. Francis Xavier by the Rev. Anthony Nardino, who at the time was working at the school. "Doe 14" says he was later molested by Brother Andrew Thomas Hewitt at Essex Catholic, where Hewitt -- who died in 2002 -- was principal.
Nardino has not been publicly accused before, and reportedly has left the ministry.
Sexual abuse allegations against McCarrick have been leveled before, including by James Grein, the first child he baptized. Grein has said that McCarrick -- known as Uncle Ted -- began molesting him at age 11.
Click here to follow Daily Voice Northern Highlands and receive free news updates.
