Why is there a row over Seton Hall's president?

The recently appointed president of Seton Hall University in New Jersey, Msgr. Joseph Reilly, “knew of sex abuse allegations on campus” and failed to follow proper procedures during his time as rector of the archdiocesan seminary attached to the university campus, according to recent reports.

Despite an independent review commissioned by the university recommending his removal from seminary and university leadership, according to a new report from Politico, published Dec. 21, Reilly was given instead a year’s “sabbatical” in 2022, before returning to a prominent role at Seton Hall in 2023 and being unanimously elected president by the board of regents earlier this year.

The report re-raises questions of accountability in American Catholic institutions in the wake of the 2018 scandal of former cardinal Theodore McCarrick — who led the Archdiocese of Newark and was chair of Seton Hall’s board of regents until becoming Washington archbishop in 2000.

But Reilly’s case also highlights a recent period in turmoil at the university itself, which is in the midst of a number of legal battles involving former members of senior leadership.

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According to Politico, Msgr. Reilly’s 2022 resignation as rector of Newark’s Immaculate Conception Seminary, which is attached to Seton Hall, which is itself a diocesan university, followed a multi-year internal reckoning following the McCarrick scandal of 2018.

In that year, McCarrick — the then-cardinal and former archbishop of Newark and Washington, D.C —, was publicly accused of decades of sexual misconduct, including harassment and abuse against young men, seminarians, and priests.

McCarrick was forced to resign from the College of Cardinals, and was then laicized through a canonical penal process at the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, which was authorized directly by Pope Francis.

But the McCarrick scandal quickly became about much more than the cardinal’s personal misconduct. Subsequent reporting showed that his crimes and behavior had been known or suspected — and in several cases even reported to Church authorities — for years, even as he was allowed to rise to the highest ranks of the Church.

The scandal culminated in a more than 400-page Vatican report on McCarrick’s career, detailing various instances, over decades, in which concerns and allegations against him were ignored or minimized.

In August 2018, Seton Hall announced it would initiate an independent review of accusations of sexual abuse and harassment against seminarians, following reports of sexual abuse and harassment by priests, and the “reported failure of many in the Church's leadership to hold them accountable.”

Reports at the time included that, in 2014, the rector of St. Andrew’s Hall, the college seminary at Seton Hall, had been removed from office and placed on “medical leave” after he allegedly hid a camera in the bedroom of a young priest.

The university’s internal review, conducted by two outside law firms, presented its findings to the university leadership in 2019. While the report was not made public, an “update” was published on the university’s website, which said that “that the University's Title IX policies are consistent with state and federal law,” but “these policies, however, were not always followed at Immaculate Conception Seminary and St. Andrew's Seminary, which resulted in incidents of sexual harassment going unreported to the University.”

According to Politico, the full report 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.

The report also concluded that Reilly “appeared to be aware of rumors” related to Theodore McCarrick, including accounts of the former cardinal’s infamous beach house on the New Jersey shore where he was accused of sexually assaulting seminarians.

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During a disciplinary implementation period, initiated by Seton Hall to respond to the report’s findings, Reilly allegedly told university authorities that he received information about a 2014 allegation of sexual harassment at St. Andrew’s Hall but did not disclose it — and that he had been ordered by the archdiocese not to answer questions about it.

That instance is believed to be the occasion in which the rector of St. Andrew’s allegedly hid a camera in a priest’s bedroom — which first came to light in 2018.

The university’s “Responsive Action Plan” to the 2019 report resolved that any employee, faculty or board member who had “knowledge of sexual misconduct claims involving [Immaculate Conception Seminary] seminarians” but did not properly report or take action in response could not serve in a leadership or board position.

But Reilly did not lose his leadership positions at the university and seminary, Politico reported on Saturday.

Instead, his departure as rector of Immaculate Conception was announced in 2022, along with a year’s sabbatical and his scheduled return in 2023 as vice-provost for academics and Catholic identity at Seton Hall.

At the time of his departure, Riley was praised for his tenure as rector, both by the then-university president, Joseph Nyre, and by Newark’s Cardinal Joseph Tobin.

Shortly after Reilly returned as vice-provost, Nyre announced his departure as university president in July of 2023.

In April 2024, the university board of regents selected Reilly to serve as president — after “a wide-ranging search.” The board’s chairman said there was “no one better [than Riley] suited to leading the university at this moment.”

At the time of Reilly’s formal installation as president, Cardinal Tobin told him that “I have no doubt that you’re the right person at the right time for Seton Hall.”

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Reilly’s previous tenure at Seton Hall’s seminaries has drawn considerable focus, and criticism following the Politico report, especially in the light of his supposedly singular suitability to lead the university, as attested by Cardinal Tobin and the chair of the Board of Regents.

But Reilly has also stepped into the role of president at a time of considerable turmoil for Seton Hall leadership.

During his term as president, Joseph Nyre oversaw the uncovering of a decade-long embezzlement plot by members of the university’s law school which saw a former assistant dean sentenced to three years in prison this month for stealing at least $1.3 million from the school.

His four year time in office was characterised by a focus on university finances, dealing with the institution’s budget and boosting income and development, though some within the university community criticized his tenure for its focus on monetary issues and a supposed de-emphasizing of the university’s Catholic character and identity — an issue Reilly’s previous post was meant to address.

Nyre’s departure, however, has also been contentious.

The former president filed suit against Seton Hall in February, alleging multiple forms of harassment and bad faith on the part of the university.

According to Seton Hall’s own campus newspaper, Nyre has alleged a former board chair attempted to interfere with the corruption investigation in the law school, demanded special treatment for select admissions cases, and even sexually harassed his wife during his time as president. The university has described the allegations as “completely without merit.”

Reilly’s appointment as president is a return to clerical leadership at Seton Hall; he is the first priest to fill the role since 2010.