Metuchen, N.J., Sep 5, 2018 / 05:20 pm (CNA).- The Diocese of Metuchen has temporarily removed a priest from parish ministry while it reexamines the handling of misconduct allegations made against him.
The priest, Fr. Alfonso R. Condorson, was ordained in 1995 in the Archdiocese of Newark by Archbishop Theodore McCarrick. Condorson, previously known as Alfonso Condorpusa, held parish assignments in the archdiocese before transferring to the Diocese of Metuchen in 2004. He was permanently incardinated in the Metuchen diocese in 2008. Condorson is now listed as pastor of St. Joseph Parish, Bound Brook, NJ.
The priest was born in Lima, Peru in 1967. According to a 2015 report in Metuchen’s diocesan newspaper, he “settled in Maryland” in 1967, and became a U.S. citizen around 1998.
Condorson has a long-standing relationship with Metuchen’s Bishop Emeritus Paul Bootkoski, who sold in 2015 a New Jersey property to the priest for $1. Bootkoski, who authorized settlements to alleged victims of Archbishop Theodore McCarrick, became Bishop of Metuchen in 2002. He was also chief aide to McCarrick during the latter’s tenure as Archbishop of Newark.
The diocese is now reviewing how two allegations made against the priest were handled.
In 1997, Condorson was accused of making unwanted sexual advances on a 24-year-old male parishioner. CNA has spoken with a New Jersey man who says he was the victim of unwanted sexual advances from Condorson in that year, while the priest was assigned to Holy Trinity Parish in Hackensack, NJ.
The man, who requested anonymity because of the nature of the allegations and citing fears of repercussions to his business, spoke with CNA about the incident, which he says occurred while he was vacationing in Cancun with Condorson, in late September or early October of 1997.
He explained that Condorson was a family friend. “He had never been physical with me” in an overtly sexual way before the incident in Cancun, the man said, though he recalled at least one episode of “rough house” play that was, he said, uncomfortable.
“Then, one night” in Mexico, “in a taxi — after drinking, it was 1 or 2 in the morning — he rested his head on my shoulder. I thought he was tired, or couldn’t hold his liquor. Then, he put his hand on my knee. I hit him in the head with my camera, which snapped a picture.” CNA has obtained a digital copy of the image, but has not seen the original or independently verified the identities of the two men depicted in it.
“When we got back to the hotel, he said, “that’s when it all started.”
The man alleged that once they were back in the hotel room, “[Condorson] started mumbling something about ‘please don’t judge me’.” He went on to say, “how much he loved me, how he wanted to kiss me — had always wanted to kiss me — always been in love with me.”
The man says he responded to Condorson with “complete silence.” He told CNA that Condorson asked him not to say anything about the incident, and that it took several weeks for him to confide in his parents what had happened while he had been on vacation. The parents had noticed his agitation and aloofness, especially around Condorson, who continued to call on the family at home.
The man says his family reported the incident to Bishop Charles McDonnell, an auxiliary bishop of Newark and the pastor of Holy Trinity Parish, where Condorson was stationed. The alleged victim’s father, who also spoke to CNA on condition of anonymity, said that the archdiocese “fought us all they way to the end.”
Condorson left Holy Trinity eventually — in June of 1998, sources close to the episode recall — but only after the family of the man making the allegations threatened to sue. The family says they ultimately decided not to file a lawsuit. “I never wanted money,” the man making the allegations told CNA.
Bootkoski was vicar general of the Newark archdiocese when that allegation was reported.
A spokesperson for the Archdiocese of Newark told CNA: “The Archdiocese investigated fully the allegation at Holy Trinity according to the protocols in place in the Archdiocese at that time for allegations of misconduct involving adults. The allegation could not be substantiated. The individual who made the accusation did state that nothing sexual had occurred. During that time, Fr. De Condorpusa underwent evaluation by competent professionals who were aware of the accusation. Those professionals concluded that there was no reason to limit or halt his ministry.”
The Newark archdiocese added that “since Bishop Bootkoski of Metuchen was Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Newark at the time of the allegation, the Diocese was aware of both the allegation and the results of the investigation.”
The Diocese of Metuchen provided CNA with a statement saying that the alleged incident happened while Condorson was a priest of the Archdiocese of Newark, and was investigated by that diocese.
“The Archdiocese had an investigation which included interviews with both Fr. Condorson and the claimant, both adults. As Vicar General, Bishop Bootkoski said he was informed of the investigation by the pastor of the parish and a former pastor, also a Vicar General for the archdiocese, who both had knowledge of the situation. Based on the testimony of the two men, at that time, Bishop Bootkoski says he was informed they had conflicting accounts of what had occurred, both lacking any hard facts. The claimant, who was an adult, and his family did not pursue the matter,” the diocese said.
In 2008, a New Jersey man wrote to Archbishop John Myers of Newark and to Bootkoski, alleging that in the summer of 1997 Condoron asked him for help with computer repairs in the Holy Trinity rectory. He said that after the work was completed, the priest “requested that I stay and have a glass of wine with him.”
“Father De Condorpusa sat next to me on the love seat and took off his collar and shoes. We briefly discussed the repair of his computer when suddenly he placed his arm around me and tried to kiss me. I was shocked, got up, and asked him what he was doing.”
“He said to me, ‘I thought you wanted it, I like older men,’” the man alleged.
The Archdiocese of Newark told CNA that “the only correspondence in the Archdiocese of Newark’s files during the year 2008 relates to Fr. De Condorpusa’s request for incardination into the Metuchen Diocese.”
The Diocese of Metuchen told CNA that it did receive the 2008 allegation, and reported the matter to the county prosecutor soon after being informed. It also said its “Diocesan Response Officer” contacted “the accuser to offer to meet to discuss the letter and provided the phone number of the proper county prosecutor for reporting Fr. Condorson.”
“Having met with the accuser and no additional information being provided, and no action being taken by the prosecutor, in light of Father’s denial there was no basis for continuing the inquiry.”
The Diocese of Metuchen told CNA this week that Condorson would be withdrawn from parish ministry at the directive of its current bishop, Rev. Paul Checchio.
“Bishop Checchio, given the challenges involved in reviewing the allegations that are two decades old, directed Father Condorson to step aside from his parish responsibilities pending the diocese’s review of the entire matter,” a diocesan spokesperson told CNA.
Priests of Metuchen have praised the leadership of Checchio, who took over the diocese in 2016. Speaking off-record, several area priests have said told CNA they find his leadership trustworthy, and a change from Bootkoski’s administration.
A clerical source inside the diocese told CNA Condorson’s close relationship with Bootkoski made the priest difficult to trust.
In response to questions about their relationship, the Diocese of Metuchen told CNA that Bootkoski “categorically denies” any accusations of impropriety in the relationship.
“According to Bishop Bootkoski, the two men are longtime friends. Any reports to the contrary are inaccurate, untrue and unfounded,” the diocese said.
On file with the Sussex County clerk’s office is a deed dated June 11, 2015, in which Bootkoski ceded interest in property located at 4 Pine Point Lane, Stanhope, NJ, to Condorson, for total consideration of $1.
Bootkoski had acquired the property in 1988 for $130,000. The net assessed value of the property — land and improvements — is currently listed at NJParcels.com as $193,900. The property carries an annual tax burden between $6,000 and $7,000. The deed — recording the sale of the property for $1 — is dated June 11, 2015 and was registered with the Sussex County clerk’s office June 22, 2015.
The Diocese of Metuchen told CNA that Bootkoski decided to give the house to Condorson after deciding that he no longer had need of it, and after his family declined interest in it.
“Bishop Bootkoski was a longtime friend of [Condorson’s], having known him before he went in to seminary from his parish assignment in Elizabeth, NJ,” the diocese said. Bootkoski was pastor of St. Mary of the Assumption Parish in Elizabeth from 1983-1990.
“When planning his will with a lawyer, he was advised to sell it to him for $1, rather than include it in his estate. So he did.”
As Bishop of Metuchen, Bootkoski authorized settlements in 2005 and 2007 to former priests who say they were sexually assaulted by Archbishop Theodore McCarrick, who himself led the Metuchen diocese before becoming Newark’s archbishop, and then Washington’s.
Bootkoski recently stated that he informed Church authorities about reports of McCarrick’s misconduct shortly after receiving them, though the New York Times has reported that the Diocese of Metuchen was aware of allegations years before the settlements were made.
In 2015, less than a year before Pope Francis accepted his letter of resignation for limits of age, Bootkoski made Condorson the director of the diocesan office for Hispanic ministry.
In the same year, Bootkoski sold Condorson the New Jersey property.
Condorson did not respond to requests for comment.
CNA staff contributed to the reporting of this story.
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I’m sick of polls regardless of who’s conducting them..
Agree re the polls.
But when the Holy Eucharist is “handed out” so casually with little or no reverence by unnecessary lay ministers you have but one ingredient to the decline in this foundational belief.
I do grow weary of it all.
You sound very dejected yourself … do you not want to know how affected your work is as a Deacon? … no wonder Catholic are loosing faith when you seem to be losing your!
David Brown: I’ll let you know when your services as a psychologist or spiritual advisor are needed. Give me your contact information so that, if and when the need arises, I’ll know where to reach you. You’re obviously highly skilled since by reading one sentence written by someone you’re able to devine so much about him. Remarkable!
I’m sick of reading about polls, and most especially polls about Catholics. Tell me one instance when a published poll had any effect on this degenerate culture other than to amuse for approximately 30 seconds. Tell me, instead, about the individual hearts and minds that have been converted through God’s grace and the evangelization efforts of Catholics..
After some pondering, I think I agree with you. I recalled how our Bishop (a good sincerely believing Bishop) cracked in his Christmas homily the fact that, according to the recent survey, more than half of Australian Catholics do not believe in the Real Presence. Somehow, he made it a point of his homily. It was one of my early years of worshiping with Catholics and I was stunned and became depressed. I could not understand why so many Catholics do not believe but even more than that – if they don’t why do they come to the Church? In a word, it was all I could think about on that night in the Cathedral.
And truly, why should I know those statistics? They achieve nothing. Our task is to live that Real Presence, nothing else. Whether others believe in it is between them and God. I think those surveys have something vulgar about them.
A quibble, but not really:
It’s amusing when people say “the Church.” That is a very sloppy and imprecise way of looking at things. Who, exactly, is “the Church”? Is it Pope Francis? Should we accept his teachings on global warming? Is it the people who put together the last catechism, with their teachings on nuclear war somehow being more evil than war with arrows and swords? Is it St. Augustine? Is it the people who wrote the Catechism of Trent? Is it the moderns who honor/worship Mary?
I think all intelligent Catholics need to get out of the habit of saying “the Church” and should, instead, be very specific on who in the Church is teaching what. It would be very enlightening.
BTW, if the writer of this article is the same Matthew Bunson who used to do the Catholic Almanac, then I say “thank you, thank you, thank you for all your work on those books!” I used many of them!
With such a watered down faith and the mindset of many which is, “Come let us worship each other”, or like the famous burger joint’s motto is “Have it your way”, which I call the Burger “K” Gospel, is anyone really surprised?
Another Catholic article focusing purely on externals and peripherals and calling it “spiritual”.
How about, “How many Catholics have sought God?”, “How many have loved God?”, “How many have found God?”, and “How many clergy have taught you how to find God?”.
The answers would show a generally dead spirituality from top to bottom, and explain quite handily the collapse.
This external-only observance was what the Christ spoke so stridently against, and that is pretty much all we have today, People Of The Book who have lost sight of to what the rules are supposed to lead.
Gloom and doom, an unhappy forecast by Real Clear’s poll the numbers reflecting in comparative accuracy Pew and other polls. Despite the slivers of resurgence by the Eucharist Congress and other attempts at revival of the faith they’re small in comparison.
Perhaps Catholics who are beginning to return to Mass and confession read the signs of the times. Many of us do sense this although others point to previous crises that eventually ended, doomsday syndromes that occur periodically in which people were convinced the Second Coming is at hand. Of course that would be a happy turn of events, except perhaps not for some who may have a desire for highly spectacular entertainment.
From observation as a priest it’s likely that the disaffection is centered on belief in the real Prince in the Eucharist. Several decades of distorted liturgy at the altar priests suddenly transformed into showmen, entertainers, and the more subdued flight attendant. Solemnity vanished along with the fire except for the resurgence of the TLM and those of us who offer the Novus Ordo Mass with reverence and love. They’re other factors: the explosion of sensuality in conjunction with the pill poor and frequently heretical catechesis and so forth and so on. Although it all comes back to that real belief in the real presence of Christ in the Holy Eucharist.
It’s been argued then that we suffered and survived similar. Here is where there’s strong disagreement from some including myself. We’ve never had heresy flow down to the faithful from the apex of hierarchy. Example the Arian heresy began with a priest and assumed by hierarchy. All the major heresies I’m aware of were singular issues, theological misinterpretations. The other marked difference is that the current heresy seriously affects all Apostolic doctrine, the fundamental premise that intrinsic moral principles are not permanent, in effect that truth and permanence are not congruent, that human behavior need not be moderated in accordance with Christ’s.
What we may infer from this heresy is that if there are no permanent truths, the fallacy is revealed in declaring that itself to be a truth. In other words, the premise cancels itself. For the vast majority we’re basically talking over their heads when we argue this point. What the Catholic public perceives is a Church in which all is questioned now permanently by a process called Synodality. And a clergy bishops included who are basically, except for the rare few who are quickly suppressed, rendered catatonic. Anyone in the house with smelling salts?
Amen Father. Heretical Modernist have destroyed so much beauty and worse of all led so many souls to Hell.
The young will save the church from those that say in the pews and said nothing in the early 70s.
Yes. There’s reason why hope is a theological virtue, as evident in times like these when there seems no hope.
The Novos Ordo can sometimes be celebrated with dignity. TLM can never be offered with indignity. Which is most pleasing to God?
As much as I would like to believe these results, there is absolutely no way the results are close to accurate – unless the people polled are CWR readers or were leaving Mass on a Sunday morning. CARA has been doing polling since 1964. From their 2023 poll: “Prior to the pandemic 23% reported attending weekly. By comparison 21% said they were attending this frequently now. There are also slightly fewer saying they attend almost every week (10% now compared to 13% prior to the pandemic).” https://nineteensixty-four.blogspot.com/2023/ As for the “12% that attend daily” I think they need to move the decimal point one place to the left.
I do not believe that this poll agrees with the CARA polls (Center for Applied research on the Apostolate. It makes a difference whether the poll was in person, phone, or questionnaire. People tend to exaggerate their performance. when talking to a live person. Was Mass attendance done on a survey or by head count? Different methodologies produce different results.
Crusader – full agreement. If these numbers were even close to the facts, then we should see traffic congestion on Sunday mornings.
Harris’s support for a constitutional amendment that would legalize abortion without any restrictions, including allowing an infant surviving an abortion to die, is barbaric. This woman also supports gay marriage and the mutilation of children through transgenderism. Thus, she openly opposes basic moral principles thar are foundational to Catholic teaching. This woman is an arm of Satan. These policies along with her economic and immigration policies will destroy this country
The US has a problem of passing ANYTHING as law so long as it got duly voted. Is that in the US Constitution? It is asserting that “we the people” clause is MEANT to give such a reading to the whole document but without actually saying so.
In typical law-making down through the ages except the 20th Century, abortion is crime as it always is and should be; PLUS, merely SPEAKING about certain things so as to promote them, is subversion, i.e., is treated as subversion as it always was and should be. The idea that law is found ONLY through a vote is unjustifiable.
Please do not use the term “gay” to mean homosexual.
As the Stonewall Institute has told us, homosexuals prefer not to be called homosexual, and to use the term “gay” is to be an ally of the LGBS community.
I disagree, as a priest, I see first hand the state of things, we in the US have about 12% of Catholics coming to Mass every Sunday. If you count REGISTERED CATHOLICS, who are registered in a parish, that number goes up, but when you consider a huge number of Catholics who never register in a parish, that number goes down.
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I would be interested to know the reason why Catholics go to Mass (when they go), if they don’t believe in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist? I would also challenge the accuracy of that 52% belief number in light of the low weekly Mass attendance. If people really believed in the Real Presence, they would go to Mass at least weekly. How is it they see the importance of Christ in the Eucharist, but fail to see the importance of going to meet Him?? And what, to them, is more important?? This is a problem within the Church, when people become accustomed and conditioned to thinking that going to Mass is just something we do and there’s no reflection on how this might affect my life spiritually. Not to mention how the dismal confession numbers indicate that the vast majority of people presenting themselves for communion are not properly disposed to receive it.
I applaud the comments of Fathers Dan and Peter Morello. I hope more and more priests will adopt their manner of thinking.
Jesus Christ must be treated with all dignity, respect, reverence and solemnity. Unfortunately, since Vatican II and the Novus Ordo Mass many of the above characteristics were taken out of the Mass and the structure of Churches. The altar became a supper table and Communion became a communal meal. Many priests and lay people adopted a casual, nonchalant attitude toward the Eucharist which diminishes the importance of the Eucharist. The concept that The Holy Mass is a sacrifice was forgotten. I’ve talked to some priests that actually said that the Eucharist distracts from the Mass. The congregation was there to worship God in one another.
Protestant concepts were introduced into the NO Mass which helped to undermine the belief that the Eucharist is God. Churches lost their beauty and became very ordinary. The tabernacle was move from an elevated position in the front of the church to a “Eucharistic Chapel” which essentially was a walk-in closet. No wonder people lost the belief of the Real Presence.
Fortunately, the TLM and conservative NO Masses are being said more often and with growing attendance. God will eventually give us back our churches and our true Mass.
One more item: A number of people dress very casually for Mass. One should at least wear dress clothes to Mass and not t-shirts and shorts. Imagine, if a lawyer showed up in a courtroom to litigate a case, dressed in a t-shirt and shorts. What do you think the judge would do to that lawyer? Doesn’t Jesus Christ deserve even more respect than a civil judge?