On Jan 22, 2025 wrote:

Dear Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde:

Your message to the President of the United States yesterday at the National Day of Prayer was spot on!  It is my hope that somehow (not likely) he will heed your words, admonitions, and pastoral concerns.  I am a former Catholic priest in the Archdiocese of Newark, NJ, and was fired for assisting victims of sexual abuse, mainly by clergy, throughout the country and many other countries.  I am a victim/survivor of clergy abuse, and my ministry has been nothing short of inspirational to me due to the courage of those whom I have had the honor of serving in some small way.

I believe we will need a coalition of religious leaders to confront the obvious turn of our country toward dictatorship.  In fact, if religious leaders do not follow your lead, the President may act unchecked and unaccountable.  There is a coalition of lay persons and current and former priests and religious order members called “Catholic Whistleblowers.”  We have attempted to move the Catholic Church toward justice and transparency, but all of us have suffered severe repercussions, including firings, revocation of priestly faculties, and legal action, to name a few.

I would be happy to work with you and other fearless leaders to pushback against the “already-arrived” dictatorship.  We are confronting terror from within, and it will take prophetic voices to stop the violence.  The Catholic whistleblowers have become experts in media communications since our church leaders do everything in their power to silence us.  Perhaps a spiritually-led press conference is in order before the dictator proceeds. 

My own brief history is provided for your information:

  1. born in 1952
  2. a member of the Irish Christian Brothers for 23 years (sexually abused by three Christian Brothers)
  3. 14 years as a priest in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Newark, NJ – ordained by Archbishop Theodore McCarrick in 1997 and the first to publicize his sexual abuse in a federal RICO lawsuit in 2005
  4. in 2011, after being fired and not given faculties by the Archbishop of Newark, John J. Myers, I petitioned Pope Benedict to relieve me of my priesthood – I was “out” in record time!
  5. have been working with a courageous Episcopal priest, Father Mariano Gargiulo of Saint James Church, Ridgefield, NJ (former Roman Catholic priest and excommunicated by the Archbishop of Newark for being ordained in the Episcopal Church) to assist a family abused by a Newark Catholic priest

Respectfully and gratefully,

Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D.

Co-founder and President

Road to Recovery, Inc. (assisting victims of sexual abuse and their families since 2002)

P.O. Box 279

Livingston, New Jersey 07039

862-368-2800

roberthoatson@gmail.com