Father Alfonso Condorson (a/k/a Condorpusa)
Diocese of Metuchen
Ordained: 1995 (Archdiocese of Newark)
Assigned in Metuchen: 2004-2008
Incardinated into Metuchen: 2008
Suspended: September 2018
Summary of Sexual Abuse Allegations against Father Alfonso Condorson:
Father Alfonso Condorson, a native of Peru, was ordained a priest in 1995 for the Archdiocese of Newark. He served in the Diocese of Metuchen. When he became a United States citizen in 1998, he followed the example of other Newark priests and changed his legal name from Alfonso de Condorpusa to Alfonso Condorson. He has a long-standing relationship with Metuchen’s Bishop Emeritus Paul Bootkoski, who sold him a New Jersey property for $1 in 2015.
According to media reports, in 1997, Condorson was accused of making unwanted sexual advances on a 24-year-old male parishioner at Holy Trinity Parish in Hackensack, New Jersey. The man says the incident occurred while he was vacationing in Cancun with Condorson, in late September or early October of 1997.
The man says his family reported the interaction 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 said that the archdiocese “fought us all they way to the end.”
Condorson left Holy Trinity in June of 1998, sources close to the episode recalled to reporters, 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.
Bishop Bootkoski, the former Bishop of Metuchen, was then vicar general of the Newark archdiocese when the allegation was reported. A spokesperson for the Archdiocese of Newark said that, 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 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 archdiocese said.
In 2008, a New Jersey man wrote to Archbishop John Myers of Newark and to Bootkoski, alleging that in the summer of 1997 Condorson asked him for help with computer repairs in the Holy Trinity rectory. Media reports are not clear, but it appears that the man was over the age of 18 at the time of the incident. At any rate, he said that after the work was completed, the priest “requested that I stay and have a glass of wine with him.. 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 Diocese of Metuchen told media that it reported the 2008 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.” Condorson denied the allegation and prosecutors did not file any charges, so, the matter was closed and Condorson was returned to ministry.
According to media reports, other priests found that Condorson’s close relationship with Bootkoski made the priest difficult to trust. In response to questions about their relationship, the Diocese of Metuchen stated that Bootkoski “categorically denies” any accusations of impropriety in the relationship. In 2015, Bootkoski sold Condorson a home worth more than $200,000.00 for $1.00.
In 2015, less than a year before Pope Francis accepted his letter of resignation for limits of age, Bootkoski also made Condorson the director of the diocesan office for Hispanic ministry.
Condorson continues to be suspended from ministry pending the outcome of the Diocese of Metuchen’s internal review. His name does not appear on the Diocese of Metuchen’s list of priests credibly accused of sexually abusing minors.
In September 2018, shortly after the release of the landmark Pennsylvania grand jury report, the Diocese of Metuchen announced that it was suspending Condorson from ministry while it reviewed prior allegations of misconduct made years earlier.
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