A New Jersey Superior Court judge ordered Seton Hall on Nov. 12 to turn over more than 20,000 pages of documents to plaintiffs in their longstanding case against the Archdiocese of Newark over clergy sexual abuse claims.
Judge Avion Benjamin originally ordered SHU to release the law firm of Latham & Watkins’ report and related documents in March, according to previous reporting in The Setonian. The report examined abuse allegations at SHU’s Immaculate Conception Seminary School of Theology (ICS) and whether university president Msgr. Joseph Reilly properly reported them.
The Latham & Watkins report has been under scrutiny since Politico reported on Dec. 21, 2024, that an internal investigation commissioned by SHU in 2018 concluded Msgr. Reilly knew of sexual abuse allegations surrounding the disgraced, late Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, but did not report them. After a 2020 Vatican report laid out McCarrick’s transgressions, SHU hired Gibbons P.C. as special counsel to commission an independent review of McCarrick's “influence and actions” at SHU. Gibbons then retained Latham & Watkins to conduct an “independent, unrestricted review.” The Latham & Watkins review was completed in 2019, with SHU sharing the “key findings” in a “Seminary Review Update.”
The full results of the Latham & Watkins review have not been made public. Benjamin’s latest order will ensure the complete report will be available to attorneys representing roughly 400 plaintiffs who allege they were sexually abused by Newark’s Catholic clergy, according to the New Jersey Monitor.
McCarrick, who served as archbishop of Newark from 1986 to 2000 before being defrocked in 2019, was found to have sexually harassed seminarians at ICS, The Setonian previously reported. In 1994, Msgr. Reilly spent a year as priest secretary to McCarrick and had allegedly once been to McCarrick’s beach house. The Dec. r 2024 Politico article said he stayed in a downstairs bedroom because he had heard rumors that McCarrick was sharing a bed with seminarians and allegedly ensured seminarians didn’t visit the beach house alone.
Msgr. Reilly’s knowledge of sexual abuse at SHU extended beyond McCarrick as well, Politico alleged, when he investigated a 2012 student complaint of sexual assault “in house” during his time as rector/dean of ICS and did not report it or follow the school and federal Title IX policies and procedures. The seminarian who was accused of the abuse was dismissed, but the university was not alerted to issues that led to his departure and he continued as a student. Additionally, the article said Msgr. Reilly dismissed a seminarian in 2012 who was an alleged victim of sexual abuse without investigating the incident or escalating the matter, a violation of university policy.
According to Politico, Msgr. Reilly also told investigators that he received information about a 2014 allegation of sexual harassment at St. Andrew’s Hall, another seminary at SHU, but did not report it.
Msgr. Reilly was appointed the 22nd president of SHU after four lay presidents by the Board of Regents in April 2024 and took office on July 1, despite letters sent to him in 2019 and 2020 revealed by Politico in February recommending that the monsignor (and any other employee or board member “with knowledge of sexual misconduct claims involving ICS seminarians”) be removed from his leadership positions at the university.
He was formerly rector/dean of ICS from 2012 to 2022 before becoming vice provost of academics and Catholic identity. He assumed the presidency after returning from a 2023 sabbatical.
University officials declined to comment on the letters at the time, but told Inside Higher Ed on Feb. 10 that the 2019 letter published by Politico was “inaccurate” and that Msgr. Reilly never received the 2020 letter. They acknowledged that while he did not report a 2012 allegation of inappropriate behavior by a seminarian to the university’s Title IX office, he “dismissed the offending seminarian from the seminary soon after the complaint” and reported the incident “within the Archdiocesan process.”
Attorneys for SHU argued the Latham & Watkins report and related documents were protected by attorney-client privilege, saying they were drafted to help prepare the school for litigation. But Benjamin found the report contained a disclaimer stating that SHU was not a client of the law firm that drafted it.
The university has 30 days to turn over the documents, though this could be delayed if SHU or the archdiocese appeals the ruling. John Baldante, one of the plaintiffs’ lead attorneys, said SHU has already indicated it would appeal.
“These documents are going to reveal additional examples of systemic behavior within both the archdiocese and Seton Hall where these institutions failed to discipline priests accused of sexual abuse and ratified a culture that turned a blind eye to perpetrators who preyed on these vulnerable children,” Baldante said, according to the New Jersey Monitor.
University officials did not respond to a request for comment.
Benjamin’s March order came amid uncovered litigation of 450 claims of sexual abuse within the archdiocese, dating back decades. In 2020, a judge ordered the archdiocese to disclose documents to plaintiffs, but SHU’s attorneys argued the university did not have to comply with that order because the university is a separately named defendant in only six of the 450 cases. By withholding the documents, Benjamin determined that SHU violated the previous court order.
In an email to The Setonian for a June article detailing the archdiocese’s legal battles, SHU spokesperson Michael Hyland said the six claims of alleged misconduct against the university, which are part of the 450 claims pending against the archdiocese, are at least 25 years old.
“There are no complaints of sexual harassment arising from St. Andrew’s or ICS currently under review,” Hyland said.
Lawyers for alleged victims in the litigation against the archdiocese did not know of the Latham report’s existence until Politico began reporting about it, according to Dustin Racioppi, the author of the Politico articles. University lawyers argued in court that they did not want to release the report because interviewees were promised confidentiality and because SHU “is not part of” the archdiocese. SHU is a diocesan university within the Archdiocese of Newark, and the archbishop—currently His Eminence, Cardinal Joseph Tobin, Archbishop of Newark—serves as president of the university’s Board of Regents and chair of the Board of Trustees, which is mandated in SHU’s by-laws.
The archdiocese did not respond to a request for comment.
The university made various changes in response to the Latham report.
“Seton Hall has significantly strengthened its Title IX reporting, enforcement, and prevention procedures in recent years, including expanded training for students and employees, enhanced response protocols, and the creation of new support resources for those affected,” Hyland said.
Msgr. Reilly has remained a highly visible figure on and off campus, having a prominent role in the “For All, Forever, A Campaign for a Greater Seton Hall” commercial and the Sept. 19 launch event, where he reflected on his personal history at SHU as reported by The Setonian.
"This is my Seton Hall story,” Msgr. Reilly said. “It is personal and profoundly life changing. It is unique to me, very much my own.”
Jacqueline Litinowsky is a copy editor for The Setonian. She can be reached at jacqueline.litinowsky@student.shu.edu.
