Assault on Most Reverend Manuel A. Cruz, Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Newark
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The Most Reverend Manuel A. Cruz, Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of
Newark, was offering opening prayers at a Saturday afternoon service..
The sanctity of the mass was shattered when a man wearing a white robe
over a red suit shambled up to the altar from the crowd, reached Bishop
Cruz and struck the 63-year-old in the face, knocking him backwards until he fell on the altar.
TAPintoNewark witnessed the assailant's apprehension after several Essex County's Sheriff's police officers ran onto the altar and handcuffed the man. One officer at the scene who saw Cruz after he was struck commented to another officer that several of the bishop's teeth had been loosened in the attack.
Bishop Cruz is now back at the cathedral residence on Ridge Street in Newark after receiving medical treatment and is resting, according to Jim Goodness, spokesman for the Newark Archdiocese.