People familiar with the Theodore McCarrick sex scandal have heard about the notorious “beach house” he alleged used to lure young seminarians and priests into sexual encounters. According to news reports, McCarrick’s beach house was located in Sea Girt, New Jersey. “It was a small, simple house, some six blocks from the ocean — a retreat that the diocese had purchased at Bishop McCarrick’s request.”
A search of Monmouth, New Jersey property records have uncovered the following facts:
- A deed
indicates that the Diocese of Metuchen completed the purchase of a house at 517 Baltimore Boulevard in Sea Girt, New Jersey from a Mary M. O’Neil for a price of $180,000 on January 3, 1985 (about four years after McCarrick was assigned to the diocese). An aerial view shows the house it is approximately 6 blocks from the ocean, as mentioned in this New York Times article. - A second deed shows that the Diocese of Metuchen sold the property to the Archdiocese of Newark for a price of $275,000 in 1988, less than 2 years after McCarrick became Archbishop of Newark. The deed was signed by Rev. Emmanuel Vernon, secretary for the Diocese of Metuchen and Bishop Edward Hughes, bishop of the Diocese of Metuchen.
- A third deed indicates the property was then sold by the Archdiocese of Newark to a private party in 1997 for a price of $349,000. This was approximately three years before McCarrick was named Archbishop of Washington DC. The deed was signed by Monsignor Ronald J. Rozniak who was vice president of the Archdiocese of Newark, and witnessed by Sister Thomas Mary Salerno, the archdiocese’s chancellor.
These deeds, along with the supporting photographs, suggest this was likely McCarrick’s beach house. Perhaps someone in the dioceses of Metuchen and Newark might be willing to confirm this fact.