Rev. Michael Charles Fugee-Assignment Record

Assignment Record – Rev. Michael Charles Fugee

Summary of Case: Michael Fugee was ordained a priest of the Newark archdiocese in 1994. He was accused in 2001 of having fondled a boy beginning when the boy was 13 years-old in 1999. Fugee admitted to police that he derived sexual gratification from the contact with the boy. He was placed on administrative leave and, in April 2003, was found guilty of aggravated sexual contact. Fugee was sentenced to a lifetime of parole and was ordered to register as a sex offender. In 2006 the conviction was overturned on appeal, due to prejudicial statements at the first trial and a problem with the judge's instructions to jurors. To avoid a retrial, Fugee signed an agreement that he would never again work unsupervised with children, and that he would undergo sex offender therapy. By 2009 Fugee was back in ministry, as a hospital chaplain very briefly - until hospital administrators learned of his past - and in parishes. He was also given chancery assignments. In April 2013 it came to light that Fugee had been assisting with overnight teen retreats at a Colt's Neck parish, including hearing teens' confessions. Parishioners expressed dismay at learning of his past conviction and agreement not to work with children. Fugee resigned from active ministry May 2, 2013. The Vatican announced his laicization in March 2014.

Ordained: 1994

Start	Stop	Parish/Assignment	Town/Accusations	State	Position	Notes
1994 Newark archbishop was Theodore Edgar McCarrick (1986-2000).	Dec. 1997	St. Rose of Lima	Short Hills	NJ	3/4, 2/4, 2/5, 3/3	St. Rose of Lima had a school with 250-298 students, and a religious education program with 450-484 students.
Dec. 1997 McCarrick was succeeded by John Joseph Myers (2001-).	March 2001	St. Elizabeth's	Wyckoff • In March 2001, Fugee was accused of having fondled a 13 year-old boy, on several occasions, beginning in 1999. He was arrested and charged with one count of criminal sexual contact. Fugee had befriended the boy's mother. The abuse was said to have occurred in the boy's home in Wyckoff, and once in a Virginia hotel where Fugee and the mother and boy were staying on a vacation. The boys said that Fugee would grab his crotch while the two were wrestling. Fugee told detectives that he "derived sexual gratification" from the encounters.	NJ	3/3 Fugee counseled couples in a pre-marriage program, worked with a seniors group, and represented the church at the Wyckoff Clergy Association. He also helped lead the parishes youth group program for grades, 1-5 called "Gather the Children", and taught religious education.	St. Elizabeth's had a school with 301-304 students, and a religious education program with 1,000 students.
March 2001	2009					Fugee is not indexed in the 2002-2009 Directories. Per news reports he was on administrative leave. Fugee was found guilty in April 2003 of aggravated sexual contact. He was sentenced to a lifetime of parole, and was ordered to register as a sex offender. Fugee's conviction was overturned and he was granted a new trial in 2006 after a panel of judges ruled that Fugee's statement to police after his arrest that he questioned his sexual identity were prejudicial, and should not have been heard by a jury. In exchange for avoiding a retrial, Fugee signed an agreement that he would never again work with children, and that he would undergo two years of sex offender therapy.
Sept. 8, 2009	Oct. 14, 2009	St. Michael's Medical Center	Newark	NJ	chaplain	The archdiocese removed Fugee from this assignment a week after hospital officials learned of his history.
2009	2011	St. Antoninus	Newark	NJ	3/3 In residence.	St. Antoninus had a religious education program with 16 students.
2010	May 2013	Propagation of the Faith	Newark	NJ
2010	May 2013	Society of St. Peter the Apostle	Newark	NJ
2010	May 2013	Holy Childhood Association	Newark	NJ
2010	May 2013	Missionary Union of Priests & Religious	Newark	NJ
Nov. 2012	May 2013	Continuing Education and Ongoing Formation of Priests	Newark	NJ
	May 2013	Sacred Heart	Rochelle Park	NJ	In residence.	Fugee resigned from active ministry May 2, 2013, after it became known to the public that he had violated the agreement to never again work with children. There were also calls for Archbishop Meyers to resign.
	May 2013	St. Mary's	Colt's Neck	NJ	Fugee attended overnight retreats for teens and heard teens' confessions at St. Mary's.	After learning of his history, St. Mary's parishioners and others expressed outrage that Fugee was allowed to minister to parish teens. After Fugee's May 3, 2013 resignation, the pastor of St. Mary's Rev. Thomas Triggs, and the parish's youth ministers, Michael and Amy Lenehan, either resigned or were forced out. The Vatican announced Fugee's laicization in March 2014.

Sources: Official Catholic Directory (New York: P.J. Kenedy and Sons, 1995-2011)

Priests in a Parish: We use the following convention to show a priest's place among the clergy of a parish: 1/2 means that he is the first priest listed in the Official Catholic Directory (usually the pastor) and that there is a total of two priests at the parish. The shorthand 3/4 means that the priest is listed third on a four-priest roster. See our sample page from the Directory.

Note: The Official Catholic Directory aims to report the whereabouts of Catholic priests in the United States on January 1 of the Directory's publication year. Our working assumption is that a priest listed in the Directory for a given year was at the same assignment for part of the previous year as well. However, Kenedy and Sons will sometimes accept updates well into the year of publication. Diocesan clergy records are rarely available to correct this information. The Directory is also sometimes misleading or wrong. We have tried to create an accurate assignment record, given the source materials and their limitations. Assignment records are a work in progress and we are always improving the records that we post. Please email us with new information and corrections.

This assignment record collates Fugee's career history as it is represented in the Official Catholic Directory with allegations as reported in the media. We make no representation regarding the truth of the allegation we report, and we remind our readers that the U.S. legal system presumes that a person accused of or charged with a crime is innocent until proven guilty. Similarly, individuals who may be defendants in civil actions are presumed not to be liable for such claims unless a plaintiff proves otherwise. Admissions of guilt or liability are not typically a part of civil or private settlements. For more information, see our posting policy.

This assignment record was last updated on March 18, 2014.