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	Our View: Diocese Deals Honorably with Ugly Past Norwich Bulletin [Norwich CT] January 27, 2007 http://www.norwichbulletin.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070127/OPINION01/701270313/1014/OPINION These are difficult times for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Norwich. Since November, the diocese has paid $3.1 million to settle sexual molestation cases and another case looms in May. It is important to note the diocese today, led by Bishop Michael Cote, played no role in these cases, which date to the late 1970s, other than to attempt to do the right thing by those victimized. Priest Bruno Primavera was a predator the church failed to treat as the criminal he was. Primavera was sent to the Norwich diocese in 1978 from Toronto, where he was known to have taken a deviant interest in teenage boys. Primavera's assault of two boys here led to a settlement of $1.1 million in November and $2 million this month. The church failed badly in dealing with Primavera and another pedophile priest, Richard Buongiorno. Buongiorno paid $350,000 of a $700,000 settlement the diocese reached in 2003 for his abuse of a boy. The church's settlements with the victims of pedophile priests are paid through liability insurance -- not from the collection plate or the bishop's annual appeal. That should be of great relief to the Catholics who donate their hard-earned money to both. Without minimizing the trauma suffered by the victims, perspective is needed so as to not damn the entire diocese for the acts of a malicious few. The Diocese of Norwich manages 78 parishes and 28 schools. The cases being resolved today -- cases alleging negligent supervision of priests -- involve two priests (and a third in May) and date back decades. The settlements paid today by the diocese acknowledge harm done and are intended to help the victims move ahead with their lives. It is clear no amount of money can undo the harm visited upon teenagers who suffer as adults. People of good will hope this is the end of an ugly saga. The Diocese of Norwich today is dealing forthrightly with a hideous chapter in the church's history -- a chapter others in positions of responsibility overlooked, ignored or -- worst of all -- enabled. For that, the diocese, and Bishop Cote in particular, deserve credit.
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