Seton Hall President Urged to Resign Amid Sexual Abuse Allegations

Lawmakers and victim advocates are calling for Seton Hall University’s president to resign after POLITICO revealed he was named in an internal report on sexual abuse allegations more than five years ago. They also want the Catholic university to release the findings as a measure of transparency and accountability.

A 2019 memo detailing the internal investigation, viewed by POLITICO, did not accuse the new president, Monsignor Joseph Reilly, of abuse. But it said he knew of sexual abuse allegations that he did not report. Investigators recommended, pursuant to a responsive action plan the school’s governing body adopted, Reilly be removed as a seminary leader and member of university boards.

Political Backlash

Instead, he took a yearlong sabbatical, returned as a vice provost and, in November, formally became president of the New Jersey school.

“I simply have no tolerance for the normalization of sexual assault or support for those who cover up acts of predators. I have college-aged kids; this reporting is deeply disturbing to me,” said Democratic Rep. Mikie Sherrill, whose district includes South Orange, where Seton Hall is located. She is also running for governor of New Jersey.

“Seton Hall needs to address this situation immediately and can start by publicly releasing the findings of their investigation and recommendations related to Monsignor Reilly.”

Public Outcry

The vice chair of the New Jersey state Senate Higher Education Committee, Andrew Zwicker, said Reilly and anyone on the university’s governing body who had knowledge of his conduct should resign.

“It’s appalling and disgraceful,” Zwicker, a Democrat, said in an interview. “The fact that we have someone that took a year off and comes back and installed as president is really just beyond the pale.”

Spokespeople for Reilly and Seton Hall did not respond to a message seeking comment on the calls for Reilly’s resignation and whether the school would release investigators’ report. The university said in a statement to POLITICO last month that those findings are confidential, and that Reilly “shares the University’s unwavering commitment to fostering a safe and supportive environment for all members of our campus community.”

All other federal lawmakers from New Jersey, as well as the state’s legislative leaders and Gov. Phil Murphy, either declined to comment or did not respond to messages about Reilly and his promotion by Seton Hall.

Call for Accountability

Zwicker said that because of the holiday break he had not conferred with the committee chair or Senate president “about what actions we might take.” He said that could include calling a public hearing or scrutinizing public tax dollars to the university.

Seton Hall is a private university, so it is not reliant on the state for funding, although the budget does support some programs and projects. It is one of the oldest and most prestigious Catholic universities in the country, matriculating former governors such as Chris Christie (at its law school) and members of Congress.

In 2018, the university hired a pair of law firms to investigate sexual abuse claims following credible allegations against former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, the longtime archbishop of the Newark diocese and later the top Catholic leader in Washington, D.C.

That review found decades of sexual harassment and a “culture of fear and intimidation” under McCarrick, according to a summary published by the university. A separate memo with key findings of the investigation was delivered to the Board of Regents, the university’s governing body. It detailed how Reilly, then rector and dean of the school’s Immaculate Conception Seminary, investigated a student complaint of sexual assault “in house” and did not report it or follow the school and federal Title IX policies and procedures. It also said Reilly dismissed a seminarian in 2012 who was an alleged victim of sexual abuse without investigating the incident or escalating the matter, a violation of university policy.

Advocacy for Transparency

Reilly, who once served as priest secretary to McCarrick, also told investigators that he received information about a 2014 allegation of sexual harassment at St. Andrew’s Hall, a seminary at Seton Hall, but did not report it.

“The findings about Monsignor Reilly, as well as anyone else named by the investigators, must be made public. Moreover, those who knew about these internal findings, and who still helped to make the Monsignor head of Seton Hall, must also be called to account,” the survivor advocacy group SNAP said in a statement.

SNAP survivor support director Melanie Sakoda added in an interview that “it’s really important to not just remove abusers, but to remove people who aren’t responding appropriately.”

“It behooves the university to get a handle on how that actually happened,” she said, referring to Reilly’s promotion to president. “Who allowed it? Who thought it was a good idea? … They need to come clean about all that.”

External Oversight

Another national advocacy group, BishopAccountability.org, agreed and noted how the review’s findings also included about a dozen other priests whose names have not been made public. The organization said Reilly should be removed and the university should identify the other priests in the report, what they were accused of and where they are now.

“They need some kind of external oversight. How many times is Seton Hall going to go through this process of being caught promoting and protecting enablers?” said Anne Barrett Doyle, a member of the group’s board of directors. “I hope that the students and the faculty put a lot of pressure on the administration to remove Msgr. Reilly and release that report. It’s not information that the administration is entitled to keep to itself.”

Government Response

State Sen. Joseph Vitale, who as chair of the Health and Human Services committee has been deeply involved in sexual abuse issues, called the POLITICO report “disturbing.”

“The university set the rules that anyone who knew of or failed to report any allegations of sexual abuse could not be part of the university [leadership], so it’s either a rule or it’s not a rule,” he said.

Vitale added that the overall issue is the Catholic church has seen decades of abuse in its ranks, and that’s because “so many of those in leadership said nothing.”

Seton Hall strongly backed Reilly last month.

“Throughout his decades of service to Seton Hall, he has demonstrated a complete commitment to academic excellence and championed the infusion of our Catholic identity into all aspects of university life,” Board of Regents Chair Hank D’Alessandro said in a statement, adding that “we continue to have absolute confidence that he will use his role to instill hope and effectively lead the university forward.”