“It’s our understanding the victim just came forward to prosecutors as an adult with an allegation of abuse that occurred while a minor in the early 1990s,” Bishop Checchio said in a statement. If the allegations were proved to be true or if Father Ganley admitted to them, the bishop said, “as per Church protocol, he would then be removed from the priesthood.”

In a letter sent to members of Father Ganley’s parish in Phillipsburg, the Rev. John Barbella, the pastor, said that a statement about the arrest and indictment would be read to parishioners at Masses this weekend. Father Ganley’s name had been removed from the parish website by Friday evening.

“It truly breaks my heart to have to share such news with you,” Father Barbella said in the letter. “Please pray for the victim of this crime, and for the healing of everyone who has been hurt by it.”

The attorney general’s office said Father Ganley was currently being held at the Middlesex County Adult Corrections Center in New Brunswick. In his statement to the diocese, Bishop Checchio advised anyone with information about the allegations against Father Ganley or any other priest to contact law enforcement and the diocese’s Office of Child and Youth Protection.

“The sexual abuse of a minor is among the most terrible of crimes because it is committed against society’s most innocent and vulnerable,” Bishop Checchio said in his statement. “Incidences of this type truly sicken and sadden me. I am truly sorry to learn of this abuse and the suffering of this victim.”

The attorney general’s office formed the Clergy Abuse Task Force in September 2018 in response to the publication of a 1,350-page Pennsylvania grand jury report that detailed abuse allegations against Roman Catholic priests by more than 1,000 accusers in four of the state’s six dioceses. Its mandate is to investigate claims of abuse in all seven of the Catholic dioceses in New Jersey as well as any efforts to cover up acts of abuse.