John J. Myers

American Catholic archbishop (1941–2020)

John Joseph Myers (July 26, 1941 – September 24, 2020) was an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as bishop of the Diocese of Peoria in Illinois between 1990 and 2001, ecclesiastical superior of Turks and Caicos from 2001 to 2016 and as archbishop of the Archdiocese of Newark in New Jersey during the same period.

John Myers was born on July 26, 1941, in Ottawa, Illinois, the eldest of seven children. The Myers family farmed land near Earlville, Illinois. Myers became an altar server in his parish, St. Theresa, from an early age. He attended the Earlville schools and graduated from Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa in 1963. While he was a student at Loras, Myers studied for the priesthood in Rome under Bishop John Franz.

Myers was ordained to the priesthood by Bishop Francis Reh at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome for the Diocese of Peoria on December 17, 1966. He studied theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University while attending seminary at the North American College. He received a Licentiate in Sacred Theology, and a Doctor of Canon Law degree. When the Holy See accepted O'Rourke's resignation as bishop on January 23, 1990, Myers automatically became bishop of Peoria. He also fired a teacher at a Catholic high school for inviting a speaker to discuss the ordination of women to the priesthood. In August 2013, the Diocese of Peoria settled a sexual abuse lawsuit for $1.35 million. The plaintiff, Andrew Ward, had accused Thomas Maloney, a diocese priest, of molesting him during the 1990's when he was eight years old. The lawsuit claimed that Myers, then bishop in Peoria, allowed Maloney to remain in ministry despite evidence of prior sexual abuse. Maloney was later accused of sexual abuse by three more victims.

On July 24, 2001, Pope Paul II appointed Myers as the fifth archbishop of the Archdiocese of Newark and third superior of the Mission Sui Iuris of Turks and Caicos. He was installed on October 9, 2001, and the pallium was conferred on June 29, 2002. which is customary in the United Kingdom and Ireland. In 2001, Myers banned eulogies at funeral masses, saying that some of them were inappropriate and too long. After pushback from parishioners, he reversed himself. In 2002, the Dallas Morning News listed Myers among bishops and diocese administrators who had allowed priests accused of sexual abuse to continue working.

In 2005 and 2007, the Diocese of Metuchen and the Archdiocese of Newark paid financial settlements to two priests who had accused Cardinal Theodore McCarrick of abuse. According to Cardinal Wuerl, no one from the Archdiocese of Newark informed him of these settlements, even though the retired McCarrick began living on the grounds of a seminary in the Archdiocese of Washington.

In 2001, Michael Fugee, an archdiocese priest at St. Elizabeth's Parish in Wyckoff, New Jersey, was accused of molesting a 14 year old boy on multiple occasions in the 1990's. Fugee confessed to police in 2001 to fondling a teenage boy, but later recanted it, saying he had been pressured by investigators. He was charged, tried and convicted in 2003 of criminal sexual contact. However, Fugee's conviction was overturned in 2006 by an appellate court. To avoid a retrial, Fugee signed an agreement with the Bergen County, New Jersey, Prosecutor's Office in 2007. He agreed to a lifetime ban working in contact with children. The archdiocese co signed the agreement, promising it would supervise Fugee. In September 2009, the archdiocese assigned Fugee as chaplain at Saint Michael's Medical Center in Newark. However, after learning about Fugee's record, Saint Michael's demanded that the archdiocese remove him. The archdiocese later admitted that they never informed the hospital, only the head of the archdiocese chaplain's office. There were calls for Myers to resign, including from members of the New Jersey State Legislature, because of his handling of the Fugee case. In early 2014, the Bergen County prosecutors agreed to not press new charges against Fugee if the church laicized him. In May 2014, the Holy See removed Fugee from the priesthood. Hebda was not replaced with another coadjutor.

Myers was active in the Canon Law Society of America, having worked with committees dealing with the revised Code of Canon Law, diocesan fiscal officers, lay ministry, and diocesan governance, and served as a member of the CLSA board of governors. He helped present workshops on the revised Code of Canon Law for members of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops.

In February 2014, the New York Times reported that Myers planned to retire to a "palace" being expanded to at his direction in Pittstown, New Jersey. The home was then assessed at $776,700. The improvements were estimated to cost at least $500,000 with architects' fees. Furnishings promised to add to the existing $500,000 bill. Myers' residence was the object for more when the diocese closed an elementary school that helped immigrant children for lack of funds. Dorothy Gawronski said, "It was a loved place, that school, but the church, I don't think it's rich anymore." NJ. com contrasted Myers' residence with the lifestyle of Pope Francis, said to live frugally. Francis had previously urged bishops to avoid living "like princes", advocating a "poor church for the poor." Charles Zech, from the Center for Church Management and Business Ethics at Villanova University business school, said that Myers was ignoring Pope Francis and taking money out of the pockets of parishioners. A petition requesting that Myers sell the property garnered 17,000 signatures. In a 2016 interview, Myers said that "the cash used for the construction was eventually covered by a restricted donation intended for housing for church leadership. He said that in 2015 the archdiocese had sold another home used by a previous archbishop; the sale proceeds and the restricted donation, "more than paid for" the addition to his residence." After Myers moved back to Illinois in January 2020, the archdiocese announced that it would sell Myers' residence.

In May 2004, Myers published a pastoral letter saying that Catholic elected officials who supported abortion rights for women should not offer communion during mass. This letter prompted Democratic Governor James E. McGreevey, a Catholic supporter of abortion rights, to state that he would no longer seek communion at mass. On April 30, 2010, Myers expressed concern about a planned offering of a course on same sex marriage at Seton Hall University, saying it "troubles me greatly".