The president of Seton Hall University has been cleared by an independent report into a previous independent investigation launched by the Archdiocese of Newark in the wake of the Cardinal McCarrick scandal.
An independent report, commissioned by Cardinal Joseph Tobin of Newark in early 2025 and published July 1, concluded that Msgr. Joseph Reilly had “acted promptly and substantively” in response to instances of sexual harassment at on-campus seminaries in 2012.
According to the report, complied by the law firm Ropes & Gray, Reilly failed to follow the university’s Policy Against Sexual Harassment by not informing the Seton Hall Title IX Coordinator about the incidents “because he was not aware that he was obligated to do so.”
The report also concluded that all relevant questions about Reilly had been resolved before he was considered for the university’s presidency, and that reports of internal recommendations that he be permanently excluded from leadership roles were based on letters to Reilly reported in the press, the conclusions of which were “inaccurate or inconsistent with the underlying record.”
The investigation was launched last year by Newark’s Cardinal Tobin, who is ex officio president of the Seton Hall board of regents.
It marks the culmination of nearly a decade of successive independent investigations and reports into the archdiocesan seminaries and the university, first begun in the immediate wake of the 2018 McCarrick scandal, during which allegations were raised against the former archbishop during his time in Newark.
Reilly, who previously served as rector and dean of Immaculate Conception Seminary, which is located on the university campus, was installed as Seton Hall’s twenty-second president in November of 2024.
According to Politico, the Latham Report — the full results of which were not made public — identified two instances involving Reilly, who had led Immaculate Conception Seminary since 2012. Reilly was not accused of abuse, but allegedly knew of two instances of sexual assault at the seminary which led to the dismissal of seminarians, and did not inform university authorities.
Politico also reported the contents of two letters from university authorities addressed to Reilly.
In a summary of the investigation’s findings into Reilly, sent to him by the university in Nov. 2019, he was told “the Latham Report found that you were aware of sexual harassment allegations involving [Immaculate Conception Seminary] seminarians and did not report and did not report such allegations to [Seton Hall University] officials, in violation of Title IX policies,” Politico reported.
“The Latham investigators also found that you declined to answer questions regarding certain sexual harassment at [St. Andrew’s Hall] of which you were aware during your time as Rector of ICS,” the letter continued.
In the Nov. 2019 letter to Reilly, sent to him by the special task force of the university’s board of regents — the president of which is and was at the time Cardinal Tobin — the priest was informed that “the Responsive Action Plan recommends that the Archbishop of Newark remove you from your position as rector of ICS… and also recommends that you be removed from your position on the [Board of Trustees] and the Board of Overseers, but that you be permitted to continue as a faculty member.”
The same letter summarized the Board of Regent’s policy in response to the 2019 independent report, including the resolution that any employee in a leadership position with knowledge of sexual misconduct claims involving ICs seminarians who failed to take appropriate action or conform to university policies “cannot serve in any SHU leadership position.”
A second letter to Reilly from the task force, dated 2020, reiterated the recommendation that Reilly be excluded from university leadership positions.
Reilly was given a year’s sabbatical in 2022 before making a scheduled return to Seton Hall in 2023 as vice-provost for academics and Catholic identity. Less than a year later, in April 2024, he was announced as the new university president.
However, the report from Ropes & Gray determined that Reilly had followed all relevant seminary and archdiocesan policies related to the Immaculate Conception incidents and that while he had not acted in accordance with wider university policy by failing to inform the Title IX coordinator of the events, he was not aware of the obligation at the time, had not received training to be aware of the requirement, and subsequently had completed the relevant training.
“Monsignor Reilly acted promptly and substantively when the allegations were reported to him in 2012, though he did not follow Seton Hall’s prescribed reporting protocols—an error that, as the contemporaneous record reflects, was unintentional given that he had not been trained on the applicable policy,” the July 1 report said.
Regarding the 2014 incident at St. Andrew’s Hall, an archdiocesan house of formation also on the Seton Hall campus, Rope & Gray concluded that Reilly “did not hold a leadership role at SAH and has consistently maintained that he had no direct involvement in or first-hand knowledge of the matter,” and that the university had itself dropped the matter by 2020.
The Ropes & Gray report further “identified significant discrepancies between the Latham Report, the Responsive Action Plan, and the Special Task Force letters’ characterizations of those documents.”
“In particular, [the Ropes & Gray report] details that several of the representations in the Special Task Force letters were inaccurate or inconsistent with the underlying record,” the report found. “Moreover, this Review confirmed from multiple sources that the February 2020 letter was never finalized or sent to Monsignor Reilly.”
The report also concluded that “the letters further inaccurately stated that the RAP recommended that Monsignor Reilly be removed as Rector of ICS and from University boards.”
“In fact, the RAP did not recommend Monsignor Reilly’s unconditional removal. Rather, the RAP recommended that Monsignor Reilly remain in his role as Rector and on the relevant boards, provided the Rector/Dean position at ICS was split into two roles, with a layperson Dean installed alongside a priest rector.”
The report also concluded that “the letter further omits that, per the RAP, this proposed structural governance change was itself contingent on a review of canon law issues that remained unresolved.”
The Ropes & Gray report also found that the 2020 letter reported by Politico had not been sent to Reilly because members of the university’s Special Task Force raised concerns about the proposed sanctions to be placed on Reilly, including his exclusion from Seton Hall leadership positions.
“Specifically, they questioned whether the discipline was proportionate given all the circumstances. Among the concerns raised were whether Monsignor Reilly was aware of or had been trained on Seton Hall’s reporting policies in place in 2012, and whether subsequent training had remediated the concerns raised,” the report said.
“Monsignor Reilly sent a letter to Cardinal Tobin on June 10, 2020, acknowledging that he understood his obligations and explained that he was unaware of those obligations at the time of the 2012 ICS incident,” according to the report. “He further affirmed that recent University training had clarified his reporting requirements and that, moving forward, he understood the importance of timely reporting to the University.”
“The Chair of the Board of Regents confirmed in June 2020 that the matter was fully and finally resolved. No changes were made to Monsignor Reilly’s leadership roles,” the Ropes & Gray report said. “He continued to serve both as Rector/Dean of ICS and on various University boards. In 2023, the University promoted Monsignor Reilly to Vice Provost for Academics and Catholic Identity, reflecting the University’s continued confidence in his leadership.”
As regards Reilly’s elevation to serve as president of the university in 2024, the report found that while some search committee members had a “general awareness” of the prior investigations, they were not collectively considered during the selection process.
“Throughout this Review, interviewees consistently expressed a high degree of confidence in Monsignor Reilly’s leadership and integrity,” the report said.
At the time of Reilly’s installation as president, Cardinal Tobin called him “truly a son of Seton Hall,” and said that there were “few people who understand this place better than its new president.”
“I have no doubt that you’re the right person, at the right time, for Seton Hall,” Tobin told Reilly at his installation.