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Detectives from Molinelli's office took 54-year-old Fr. Kevin Carter into custody at the rectory of St. Margaret of Cortona Roman Catholic Church today, the prosecutor said.
"A search of his room located the weapon in question, as well as gun powder, ammunition and associated items for the gun," he said.
Carter -- who previously served at churches Hillsdale, Ho-Ho-Kus, Oakland and Wyckoff -- was charged with aggravated assault and child endangerment and ordered held on $15,000 bail.
He remained at Little Ferry police headquarters earlier this evening.
A St. Margaret parishioner contacted the Newark Archdiocese last Friday, alleging that the incident occurred several weeks earlier.
Witnesses told detectives that Carter asked to see the boy in one of the rectory rooms after he and his family came to the church for Mass on Sunday, Sept. 13, Molinelli said.
Carter then "had the victim stand against a wall," after which he "then retrieved a long gun from nearby and pointed it at the child with an indication that he would shoot him," the prosecutor said.
"This was witnessed by several individuals [who] were standing outside of the room," he said.
Carter was ordained in Newark in November 1986, records show.
From January 1987 to June 1993, he was at St. Elizabeth R.C. Church in Wyckoff. He then went to St. John's RC Church in Hillsdale for four years.
This was followed by a temporary administrative post at Our Lady of Perpetual Help R.C. in Oakland from September 1997 to February 1998, and five months at St. Luke R.C. Church in Ho-Ho-Kus.
He then served from July 1998 to February 2013 at St. Nicholas R.C. Church in Jersey City before coming to ST. Margaret.
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