Racketeering statues cited in sex lawsuit: first of its kind suit targets U.S. bishops - Camden, New Jersey - Cover Story

National Catholic Reporter, July 2, 1993 by Patricia Lefevere

CAMDEN, N.J. -- The sex abuse blemish that has broken out periodically on the face of the Catholic church during the past seven years has suddenly turned into a rash that threatens to disfigure the moral countenance and trust of many of its leaders.

While sex abuse cases against individual priests have surfaced in scores of U.S. sees, a priest and five other plaintiffs recently brought a class-action suit against not only two priests -- alleged to have molested three of the plaintiffs between 1965 and late 1972 -- but also against their dioceses, their former parishes, their bishops and against the National Conference of Catholic Bishops.

The lawsuit, filed June 10 in U.S. District Court here accuses the church of conspiring to conceal sexual assaults by the priests and of obstructing justice. It also alleges fraud under federal and New Jersey antiracketeering laws, usually invoked to prosecute organized-crime bosses.

It is the first suit raised by a priest against the church, and the first time church figures have been sued under Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) statutes. The suit also claims that bishops and clergy involved in the case conspired to destroy evidence and to use the Vatican Embassy in Washington "as a conduit to the Vatican to shield incriminating documents."

Specifically the lawsuit charges that Fr. Joseph F. McGarvey, 68, of Audubon, N.J., and his seminary classmate Fr. William C. O'Connell of Providence, R.I., conspired to create "a sex ring of children," to use for their pleasure and that the pair transferred male youths across state lines for this purpose.

McGarvey has been on a voluntary leave of absence since May 14. O'Connell was suspended in 1985, following his arrest and conviction for sexually abusing a child, a crime for which he served a year in jail.

Fr. Gary Hayes, 40; Terrance Smith, 39; and Steven Stollar, 39; along with Hayes' mother, Stollar's father and a sixth plaintiff brought the suit against the two priests. Hayes, Smith and Stollar, all former members of St. Mary Magdalen Parish in Millville, N.J., where McGarvey was pastor in the 1960s, claim they were plied with liquor, fondled and sexually abused by the two priests in their rectories and during vacation trips. They also claim they were told by the priests never to tell anyone of their "special relationship."

But Hayes said he did tell. In college he told two priests. Later, in 1986 he said he told several priests and a nun in the Camden diocese. Hayes, who was not accepted for ordination in Camden, was ordained in the Owensboro, Ky., diocese where he currently serves at Our Lady of Lourdes Parish.

At a June 14 press conference, Bishop James McHugh of Camden denied any conspiracy, obstruction of justice, or involvement in racketeering. He rejected allegations that he or his predecessor, the late Bishop George Guilfoyle (both are named in the suit) were negligent in failing to investigate McGarvey fully, before transferring him in 1978.

In answer to reporters' questions, McHugh said Camden's only reason for rejecting Hayes was his "academic record."

However, in two confidential memos leaked to The Philadelphia Inquirer the day after McHugh's news conference, there is evidence that Camden diocesan officials were aware of McGarvey's alleged sexual misconduct.

One memo records an Oct. 8, 1986, interview between Hayes and Fr. Joseph Perreault, Camden's vocations director. The memo, initialed by Perreault, details McGarvey's treatment of Hayes while Hayes was in high school and during his first year in seminary formation. It goes on to say that Hayes indicated that "several" other young men in the Millville parish had been "victimized" by McGarvey.

A second document, also initialed by Perreault -- who lives at St. Maria Goretti in Runnemede, N.J., where McGarvey was pastor 16 years until his recent leave -- concerns the Vocation Board's April 4, 1987, decision not to allow Hayes to be a priest in Camden. It states that the board found Hayes' growth and development to have been "negatively" influenced by "priests who are still functioning" in the diocese.

Responding to the memos, McHugh told the Inquirer that he was aware of Hayes' meetings with Perreault and with another Camden priest, Fr. John P. Frey. The bishop said he spoke with both priests about their meetings with Hayes after he learned in March of an impending lawsuit.

McHugh said the information in the memos had not been reported to any higher authority, nor had it been lodged in other diocesan files or in McGarvey's personal file. Instead it remained in a confidential file in the vocations office where the bishop said he discovered it early this year.

Other discoveries may await the outcome of this suit. A Camden priest and writer for The Philadelphia Daily News and the Courier-Post of Camden, Msgr. Salvador Adamo, told NCR that pro-choice or gay rights activists may be behind the lawsuit, whose charges he termed "ludicrous."

"I look at this case as part of the continuing process to cripple the Catholic church. ... If they could besmirch the priesthood ... they'll have succeeded to a large degree," he said. Adamo also indicated that "if the RICO charge is vindicated in court, the church could lose its tax exemption."