Pastor, youth ministers step down at church where priest violated ban on child contact

Mark Mueller
Star-Ledger
May 5, 2013

The pastor and two youth ministers at the Monmouth County church where a visiting priest violated a lifetime ban on ministry to children have stepped down from their posts, the latest fallout in an escalating scandal enveloping Newark Archbishop John J. Myers.

The Rev. Thomas Triggs, pastor of St. Mary's Parish in Colts Neck, announced his resignation from the pulpit during Mass on Saturday evening, hours after meeting with Trenton Bishop David M. O'Connell.

In one of his final acts, Triggs accepted the resignations of the youth ministers, Michael and Amy Lenehan, who had invited the Rev. Michael Fugee to take part in youth retreats and other activities with teens, a spokeswoman for the Trenton Diocese said in a statement.

O'Connell, in a message read to parishioners during Mass Saturday and today, said recent "troubling events" and the "intense scrutiny" surrounding them made it clear a change in parish leadership was in "the best interest of all concerned."

Full aticle at the Star-Ledger