The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) held a press conference on Tuesday in front of Seton Hall’s Ward Gate to announce the filing of a formal complaint against Cardinal Joseph Tobin, the Archbishop of Newark and the president of SHU’s Board of Regents and chair of the Board of Trustees, urging a Vatican investigation.
The purpose of the press conference was to “deliver a critical announcement concerning the role of the U.S. Catholic cardinals in the next papal conclave,” according to a SNAP press release.
SNAP announced they have filed formal complaints against several U.S. cardinals, including some who lead Vatican dicasteries responsible for investigating abuse. One of the cardinals named in the complaints is Tobin.
With Tobin holding powerful positions at SHU, part of the reasoning behind his inclusion in the complaint stems from the controversy surrounding university President Msgr. Joseph Reilly.
Reilly was named the university’s 22nd president in April 2024 in a selection process led by the Board of Regents and Board of Trustees, according to SHU’s by-laws. As the president of SHU’s Board of Regents and chair of the Board of Trustees, Tobin formed the search and screen committee that appointed Reilly president. This came after a 2019 report by the law firm Latham & Watkins allegedly found that Reilly was “aware of sexual harassment allegations involving seminarians and did not report such allegations to SHU officials, in violation of the university’s Title IX policies.”
In December 2024, Politico revealed that Reilly allegedly knew about claims of sex abuse at SHU at the hands of now-defrocked Theodore McCarrick. McCarrick was the archbishop of Newark from 1986 to 2000. He died on April 3 at the age of 94.
On March 18, New Jersey Superior Court judge Avion Benjamin ordered SHU to hand over the Latham report; however, it is unclear when Benjamin will receive it and other relevant documents.
The SNAP press conference was held at the Ward Place Gate around 11 a.m. on April 15 and was led by three SNAP representatives: board president Shaun Dougherty, founding member and chair of the Global Policy Working Group Peter Isely, and media and communications team member Sarah Pearson.
“We chose to announce seven new complaints on U.S. cardinals at Seton Hall because of the ongoing catastrophe that only continues because Cardinal Tobin refuses to do the right thing: come clean about what happened, release the report from the 2019 investigation, and make the necessary corrections to ensure what happened in the past can never happen again,” Pearson said.
Pearson also criticized the university’s selection of Reilly as president after a Board of Regents task force, according to Politico, said he should not hold any leadership position on campus.
“[This] is utterly disrespectful to survivors of abuse, and it sends a message to current students that violating Title IX regulations is not a dealbreaker for campus leadership,” Pearson said.
Maria Margiotta, executive director of communications for the Archdiocese of Newark, commented on SNAP’s complaint, referencing a “comprehensive third-party review of the facts” that Cardinal Tobin announced in February.
“Cardinal Tobin commissioned the Ropes & Gray law firm to conduct a third-party review of the facts from the 2019 Latham report about whether or not Monsignor Reilly had any relevant knowledge of former Archbishop McCarrick’s behavior and communicated such information to any and all appropriate personnel at Seton Hall and the Archdiocese of Newark, and if so, by what means and by whom,” Margiotta said.
Margiotta added that Tobin has pledged to publicly release the findings of this review.
According to SNAP’s complaint, Tobin’s actions are an abuse of church power that hurt vulnerable people and caused scandal, which is a violation covered by canon 1378 in Code of Canon Law.
Dougherty, Isely, and Pearson accused Tobin of obstructing both civil and canonical investigations in the Archdiocese of Newark and at SHU (which is a diocesan university) and called for a transparent, Vatican-led inquiry.
Specifically, the complaint said that in 2018, a journalist wrote that Cardinal Tobin told him after taking over as archbishop in Newark that he heard “rumors” about McCarrick and a beach house where he had abused seminarians but never bothered to check them out, saying the story was too “incredulous” to believe. The complaint also claims that the archdiocese instructed Reilly not to cooperate with SHU’s investigation into McCarrick’s conduct on campus.
SNAP issued their complaint on Monday with the Vatican in light of Pope Francis's Vos estis lux mundi declaration, which allows any person to submit a report concerning clergy sexual misconduct allegations.
The complaint requests that Vatican officials carry out a full investigation and release the findings publicly.
The complaint also references The Setonian’s March article “Legal battle over sex-abuse report intensifies.”
These filings follow last month’s announcement of the Conclave Watch initiative in Rome, which is a “global, survivor-led initiative” launched by SNAP.
According to their website, Conclave Watch “calls on the next conclave to select a pope who has not covered up abuse and who will commit—on the very first day of his papacy—to enacting a binding, universal zero tolerance law.”
Pearson told News 12 New Jersey about SNAP’s mission before the election of the next pope.
“We’re trying to give survivors around the world and in the United States a platform for people to speak out…so we can have these conversations now,” Pearson said. “So we can talk about this before the next pope is elected—before we find out after the fact that that person may have a history of having covered up abuse.”
Tobin is currently scheduled to lead an immigration panel at SHU on April 24, serving as the keynote speaker and mass celebrant.
Sofia Kasbo is the assistant editor for The Setonian’s News section. She can be reached at sofia.kasbo@student.shu.edu.
Jacqueline Litowinsky is the head editor for The Setonian’s News section. She can be reached at jacqueline.litowinsky@student.shu.edu.
Morgan Frye, the social media editor of The Setonian, contributed to reporting. She can be reached at morgan.frye@student.shu.edu.
