Seton Hall president was told he violated Title IX policies on sexual abuse

A school disciplinary task force detailed investigators’ findings and recommendations in a 2019 letter to Joseph Reilly, saying he should no longer hold a leadership role.

By Dustin Racioppi

This article was first published by POLITICO at 02/01/2025 12:00 PM EST

The new president of Seton Hall University was told in writing more than five years ago that he violated federal Title IX policies on sexual abuse reporting and that he should no longer hold the leadership positions he held at the time.

In internal documents being published for the first time by POLITICO, a special task force formed by the university to carry out disciplinary actions detailed investigators’ findings and recommendations against Monsignor Joseph Reilly in 2019. Reilly, then a high-ranking seminary leader and member of university boards, was not accused of abuse but investigators determined he did not properly report sexual misconduct allegations from 2012.

Reilly acknowledged those findings in November 2019 and, within days, stepped down from a university hiring committee. He remained, however, in charge of a seminary that trains priests — despite the recommendation he resign from that position, too.

Five years later, Seton Hall’s governing board promoted him to president of one of the country’s most prestigious Catholic universities.

Read the letters here.

In the month since POLITICO first revealed that Reilly was implicated in the investigation, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy has called for the university to release the report and two state lawmakers — all Democrats — as well as abuse advocates have said he should resign.

The university has ignored those calls and instead reaffirmed its support for Reilly — while insisting that “recent news stories have falsely and unfairly portrayed him.” The school has previously said it wouldn’t release the report because “it is essential to respect the privacy and confidentiality promised to all individuals who participated in the review.”

Spokespeople for Reilly and Seton Hall did not respond to questions this week about how he’d been “falsely and unfairly” portrayed. There was also no response to questions about why the university acted against the advice of lawyers it hired to conduct the review.

The task force’s correspondence fill in more detail about how the school dealt with one of its most powerful figures in the wake of a sexual abuse scandal that grabbed national attention and led to a separate investigation by the Vatican. The documents also add to Seton Hall’s own public summary of its investigation that said its policies “were not always followed” and “resulted in incidents of sexual harassment going unreported to the University.”

The university hired two law firms in 2018 to review the “influence and actions” of former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, who was the archbishop of Newark before being named to lead the diocese in Washington, D.C. Seton Hall is part of the Newark archdiocese, whose archbishop — currently Cardinal Joseph Tobin — serves as president of the university’s Board of Regents and chair of the Board of Trustees.

The McCarrick investigation followed decades of allegations that he had sexually abused children and seminarians. Since then, he has faced allegations across multiple states, and was stripped of his ministry.

Investigators came back to the school’s Board of Regents in 2019 with findings against about a dozen priests on campus, including Reilly. The governing board then adopted a Responsive Action Plan, crafted by outside counsel, “to address the misconduct of the involved individuals.”

Among other things, the action plan said that any employee or board member who had knowledge of sexual misconduct and failed to report it or take action in accordance with university policies “cannot continue as a Board member or serve in any SHU leadership position.” It also said such employees or board members with knowledge of McCarrick’s misconduct and did not report it or act to protect seminarians cannot serve as an administrator, board member or hold “any leadership position at SHU.”

Reilly had served one year as McCarrick’s priest-secretary, in 1994. The investigation covered his tenure as the archbishop of Newark from 1986 to 2000. When he was McCarrick’s secretary, Reilly once went to McCarrick’s beach house but — because he had heard rumors of the archbishop sharing a bed with seminarians — made sure he stayed in a downstairs bedroom, according to a memo of investigators’ findings viewed by POLITICO. It also said Reilly made sure seminarians didn’t visit the beach house alone.

Reilly later went on to lead two seminaries on campus — St. Andrew’s Hall and Immaculate Conception Seminary.

In 2012, while rector and dean of Immaculate Conception, Reilly investigated a student complaint of sexual assault “in house” and did not report it or follow the school and federal Title IX policies and procedures, according to the memo. It said Reilly dismissed a seminarian — an alleged victim of sexual abuse — in 2012 without investigating the incident or escalating the matter, a violation of university policy.

In a letter to Reilly in November 2019, task force chair Joseph P. LaSala wrote that investigators also found that Reilly declined to answer questions about “certain sexual harassment” at St. Andrew’s he was aware of.

“As a result, the Responsive Action Plan recommends that the Archbishop of Newark remove you from your position as rector of ICS,” the letter said. “The Responsive Action Plan also recommends that you be removed from your position on the [Board of Trustees] and the Board of Overseers.”

Reilly then submitted to an “unrestricted interview” with investigators, in January 2020 and provided what he knew about the 2014 allegations at St. Andrew’s Hall. In a second letter to Reilly, in February 2020, LaSala wrote that investigators had found Reilly was aware of the 2012 allegations and did not properly report them. He repeated the Responsive Action Plan’s recommendations that he be removed from seminary leadership and school boards.

“We hope you appreciate the University’s need to implement fully the Responsive Action Plan,” he wrote, “which is designed to ensure that all members of the Seton Hall community abide by the University’s Policy Against Discrimination, Harassment and Retaliation and that the University faithfully adhere to its Guidelines for Responding to Complaints of Sexual Misconduct, Discrimination, Harassment and Retaliation.”

In a university-wide email last week, Board of Regents Chair Hank D’Alessandro said the board “reviewed the findings, and with the University, approved the implementation of personnel changes and improvements to the Seminary.” After that, he said the board “enthusiastically supported Monsignor Reilly.”

It still does, he said in last week’s email.

“The Board has stood by and continues to stand by Monsignor and trusts his proven record of effective leadership. He is a faithful servant and the right person to lead Seton Hall.”