Here Are 2 Raritan Priests On The 'Credibly Accused' List

RARITAN, NJ — The journalism site ProPublica, a Patch Partner, recently released the most comprehensive list so far of Catholic clergy "credibly accused" of sexual abuse. The list includes two accused abusers with ties to Raritan.

Both have either passed away or have been permanently restricted from the priesthood due to the allegations.

The searchable database — which includes nearly 200 priests accused from the dioceses of Metuchen, Newark, Trenton, Camden and Paterson — comes on the heels of various reports identifying hundreds of "predator" priests across the state.

RELATED: Full List Released Of NJ Catholic Clergy Accused Of Sex Assault

Here are the two priests on the ProPublic list with Raritan ties:

Thomas Ganley

Ganley, who was born in 1955 and ordained in 1985, served at a number of parishes including locally at St. Ann in Raritan. He also served at St. Cecilia in Monmouth Junction, St. Matthew in Edison, Immaculate Conception in Spotswood, St. Cecelia in Iselin, Our Lady of Fatima in Piscataway, Sacred Heart in South Plainfield, and St. Philip and St. James in Phillipsburg.

Ganley pleaded guilty in April 2019 to sexually assaulting a teenage girl in the early 1990s while serving as a priest at Saint Cecelia Church in Iselin. He had supervisory authority over the victim in his role as head of the Youth Ministry for the parish and admitted that he engaged in sexual acts with the victim when she was 16 or 17 years old, according to the state attorney general's office. He has since been removed by the Diocese of Metuchen.

Lewis Morrow

Morrow, who was born in 1937, served at a number of parishes including locally at St. Ann in Raritan. He also served at Lutheran Medical in Brooklyn, NY, Milton Hospital in Milton, MA, Sacred Heart Parish in Burlington, NH, St. Elizabeth's Hospital in Brighton, MA, and Victory Memorial Hospital in Brooklyn, NY.

Allegations of sexual abuse of a minor was reported in 1977 and he was later removed from the ministry in 2003 after review of files. He later died in 2004.

ProPublica's project was spurred by a 2018 Pennsylvania grand jury report, which named hundreds of priests as part of a statewide clergy abuse investigation.

Nationwide, the names of more than 5,800 clergy members have been released so far, representing the most comprehensive step toward transparency yet by a Catholic Church dogged by its long history of denying and burying abuse by priests.

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