Westport Now
December 1, 2009
http://www.westportnow.com/index.php?/v2/comments/25736/
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| Bishop William Lori announces a $21 million settlement in October 2003 with priest sex abuse victims. |
Five priests who served in Westport are cited in documents released today by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport as it complied with a court order to disclose documentation on how it handled allegations of sexual abuse against its clergymen.
The diocese turned over thousands of pages to Waterbury Superior Court officials and to the lawyers of four newspapers that had filed suit to force release of the documents. Their release ended a seven-year legal battle to keep them private.
The five priests who served in Westport named in the documents, which cover a period going back more than 40 years, include Martin J. Federici, picked up by Westport police in 1968 for allegedly molesting a boy in his car. He served at Westport’s Assumption Church from 1968 to 1970.
The others were Joseph Gorecki, who served at Assumption in 1974; Albert McGoldrick, who served at Assumption in 1988; Charles W. Stubbs, who served as Assumption from 1964 to 1967, and Vincent Veich, who served at Assumption from 1978 to 1984.
The allegations against these and the other priests had previously been reported and were part of church settlements over the years. (See WestportNow Feb. 15, 2004 and Oct. 16 and 22, 2003)
The efforts to gain access to the documents go back to May 2002 when Waterbury Superior Court Judge Robert McWeeney ordered the documents unsealed. On Jan. 6, 2003, the diocese appealed McWeeney’s decision to the state Appellate Court, which ruled that the records can remain sealed.
On Nov. 4, 2005, the State Supreme Court overturned the Appellate Court and sent the case back to lower court for a round of new hearings.
On May 26, 2009, the State Supreme Court ruled the sex-abuse documents should be unsealed. On Aug. 28, 2009, the diocese appealed to U.S. Supreme Court, which, on Oct. 5, 2009, refused to block release of the documents.
The Bridgeport Diocese said details in the documents had already been shared with the victims through their attorneys before the cases were settled and were extensively reported on by the news media.
The Hartford Courant, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe and The New York Times asked state and federal courts to make the material public.
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