CONNECTICUT
Journal Inquirer
By Alex Wood, Journal Inquirer November 21, 2005
Insurance companies will pay more than half the $22 million that the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Hartford has agreed to pay to 43 people who alleged that priests sexually abused them, an archdiocesan spokesman says.
The rest of the money will come from the archdiocese's self-insurance fund and from its savings, according to the spokesman, the Rev. John P. Gatzak.
"It doesn't take a brain surgeon to realize that the self-insurance and savings come, at one time or another, from the generosity of parishioners," Gatzak said last week. "The church is the people of God."
And money spent for one purpose can't be spent for something else, he acknowledged.
But Gatzak said no Catholic schools will be closed or otherwise affected by the settlement -- and that it won't cause the closing or merger of any parishes.