Seton Hall defies cardinal's order in sexual abuse investigation
Cardinal Joseph Tobin of Newark promised a thorough investigation into clergy abuse at Seton Hall University, but the school blocked a key witness from participating. | Gregorio Borgia)/AP
Cardinal Joseph Tobin of New Jersey left for Vatican City earlier this month to help select the next pope — a rare moment on the global stage for one of the most powerful Catholic leaders in the United States.
Back home, Seton Hall University — the oldest Catholic diocesan university in America, where Tobin personally oversees both governing boards — was preparing to defy him.
A day after the new pontiff was chosen on May 8, attorneys for the university blocked a key witness from participating in a clergy abuse investigation Tobin had ordered, according to a court filing. That inquiry centers on whether Seton Hall's new president, Monsignor Joseph Reilly, was installed despite past mishandling of abuse allegations.
Now Tobin's own archdiocese is trying to regain control.
The moves expose a conflict at the highest levels of Catholic education — pitting Tobin against the university he oversees — and threatens to unravel his public promises of transparency with the school's ' full cooperation.'
Joseph Nyre, the university's former president, had been scheduled to speak with investigators until Seton Hall intervened. In his first public comments since leaving the presidency, Nyre said in a statement: 'Either the Cardinal has been overruled by his own board, including the bishops who sit on it, or the openness he promised is being applied only when convenient. The public deserves to know which it is.'
Seton Hall did not respond to a message seeking comment.
Tobin, the archbishop of Newark, ordered a comprehensive investigation into clergy abuse in February, several weeks after POLITICO reported that Reilly was found in a 2019 inquiry to have not properly reported abuse allegations years prior as a seminary leader. That earlier investigation came in response to sexual abuse claims against former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, the longtime archbishop of Newark and Washington, D.C. It found decades of sexual harassment and a 'culture of fear and intimidation' under McCarrick, according to a summary published by the university. McCarrick died last month at age 94.
Reilly, who once served as a secretary to McCarrick, was not accused of abuse himself. But an action plan adopted by the university recommended he be removed from school boards and not hold leadership positions there. He took a year-long sabbatical and, after Nyre's departure, became university president last year with unanimous support of the school's Board of Regents and Tobin, who called Reilly 'the right person at the right time for Seton Hall.'
'Mind-boggling and outrageous'
In February, Tobin hired the law firm Ropes & Gray to essentially investigate the investigation, and to review the action plan the university adopted as a result. Tobin said his inquiry would examine how the findings related to Reilly and 'whether they were communicated to any and all appropriate personnel at the Archdiocese and Seton Hall University.'
Nyre was president of the university when the 2019 investigation by lawyers at Latham & Watkins concluded and its findings were delivered to university leaders through another law firm, Gibbons P.C.
Nyre left the presidency in 2023 and filed a whistleblower lawsuit against the university last year, claiming a series of retaliatory measures against him. In a statement after filing an amended complaint this month in state Superior Court, an attorney said Nyre 'formally and confidentially disclosed to University officials that Monsignor Reilly had previously been found ineligible due to serious Title IX failures — yet Seton Hall retaliated instead of investigating,' referring to the federal law against sex-based discrimination and harassment.
Nyre had been scheduled to speak with Ropes & Gray on May 9. But a lawyer for Seton Hall, Tom Scrivo, said in a letter to Nyre's attorneys that 'contractual obligations' blocked Nyre from sharing any confidential information he may have as a result of his employment as president.
'There is no exception to that broad prohibition that would permit Dr. Nyre to answer any questions at an interview regarding any matter within the scope of the Ropes review,' Scrivo wrote.
He added that an April 4 court order in the ongoing litigation between Nyre and Seton Hall was 'unambiguous' that Nyre cannot share confidential information with Ropes & Gray. That still defies the intent of the investigation to one lawmaker who has publicly pressured Seton Hall for more accountability.
'Cardinal Tobin said when announcing this investigation that it would be thorough and transparent,' said New Jersey state Sen. Andrew Zwicker, a Democrat who serves as vice-chair of the Senate Higher Education Committee. 'And it is clear that they are doing the opposite in trying to stop former president Nyre from providing his input into the ongoing investigation. It is just mind-boggling and outrageous.'
One of Nyre's attorneys said Seton Hall is 'clearly attempting to weaponize' that court order to 'muzzle' his client.
'This position is not only at odds with the plain language of the April 4 Order,' the lawyer, Austin Tobin, said in a letter to the judge seeking a status conference on the matter. '... but also very odd considering the fact that the Archdiocese of Newark is conducting the interview at issue on behalf of the University.'
Now the archdiocese is 'working diligently' with the university to ensure investigators have 'access to all relevant information as soon as possible,' a spokesperson for the cardinal said.
When Cardinal Tobin announced the investigation, 'he fully expected that Ropes & Gray would have the full cooperation of the Board of Regents and Seton Hall University on matters relating solely to Monsignor Reilly,' the spokesperson, Maria Margiotta, said in a statement Tuesday.
'Unfortunately, ongoing litigation involving Seton Hall, to which the Archdiocese is not a party, has created impediments to this review,' Margiotta said. 'Cardinal Tobin stands by his earlier statement that there should be no restrictions on Ropes & Gray's effort to access all relevant information and witnesses,' she added.
Ignored calls to release past investigation
New Jersey's political leaders have been pushing for more transparency from Seton Hall for months. Three state lawmakers, Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy and Rep. Mikie Sherrill, a Democratic candidate for governor whose congressional district includes Seton Hall, have called for the university to release the 2019 report.
The university has ignored those calls, citing attorney-client privilege. But a judge in a separate clergy abuse case has ordered the university to provide the report.
The university fought that, too. But the judge, Avion Benjamin, found in March that Seton Hall violated a past court order for discovery by not disclosing the 2019 report, and said the school had to turn it over to her.
Blocking Nyre from speaking with investigators fits a pattern of trying to keep clergy abuse from public view, said Mark Crawford, New Jersey director for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.
'It's not surprising but it's outrageous,' Crawford said. 'They don't want the truth to come out. It's abundantly clear or you wouldn't be suppressing the former president who was there, who would know, from speaking his truth.'
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