Activists Urge Diocese to Publicize Abuse Claims, by Tim Loh, Ct Post, March 28, 2011

Activists Urge Diocese to Publicize Abuse Claims

By Tim Loh
Ct Post
March 28, 2011

http://www.ctpost.com/local/article/Activists-urge-diocese-to-publicize-abuse-claims-1311851.php

Activists David Clohessy, left of St. Louis, MO, and Anne Barrett Doyle of Waltham, MA, hold a photo of accused priest Fr. Paul Carrier as they discuss three alleged child molesters during a protest at Bridgeport Catholic diocesan headquarters at 238 Jewett Ave. in Bridgeport on Monday, March 28, 2011. Carrier is accused of molesting Fairfield University student Doug Perlitz, who himself was recently imprisoned for the molestation of children in Haiti.

Anne Barrett Doyle, co-director of BishopAccountability.org of Waltham, MA, hold a photo of abuse victim Michael Powel whose family recently settled a civil suit against the Bridgeport Catholic diocese, during a protest at Bridgeport Catholic diocesan headquarters at 238 Jewett Ave. in Bridgeport on Monday, March 28, 2011.

Activist David Clohessy of SNAP, the Survivor Network of those Abused by Priests, of St. Louis, MO, holds a photo of accused priest Fr. Paul Carrier during a protest at Bridgeport Catholic diocesan headquarters at 238 Jewett Ave. in Bridgeport on Monday, March 28, 2011. Carrier is accused of molesting Fairfield University student Doug Perlitz, who himself was recently imprisoned for the molestation of children in Haiti.

Activists David Clohessy, left of St. Louis, MO, and Anne Barrett Doyle of Waltham, MA, discuss three alleged child molesters during a protest at Bridgeport Catholic diocesan headquarters at 238 Jewett Ave. in Bridgeport on Monday, March 28, 2011.

Anne Barrett Doyle, co-director of BishopAccountability.org of Waltham, MA, holds documents regarding alleged molestation of a New Hampshire girl by Rev. Patricia Long, during a protest at Bridgeport Catholic diocesan headquarters at 238 Jewett Ave. in Bridgeport on Monday, March 28, 2011. Long, a former Catholic nun, worked from 2005-2009 at the Congregational Church of New Canaan.

Brian Wallace, director of communications for the Bridgeport Catholic diocese, outside diocesan headquarters at 238 Jewett Ave. in Bridgeport on Monday, March 28, 2011.

BRIDGEPORT -- A pair of Roman Catholic activists on Monday called on Bishop William Lori to warn parishioners of three individuals they claim have been "credibly accused" of sexual improprieties.

In a mid-afternoon rally held outside the diocese headquarters on Jewett Avenue, the two protesters also urged Lori to place the names of all priests who have been removed for allegations of sexual abuse on the diocesan website and to more openly share information about all personnel who come under review for the offense.

None of the three individuals the protesters cited as being dangerous -- the Rev. Paul Carrier, a former Fairfield University official; Carlo Fabbozzi, a former janitor and landscaper at St. Theresa's Church in Trumbull; and the Rev. Patricia Long, a former minister at the Congregational Church of New Canaan -- has ever been charged criminally.

In response, the diocese on Monday said it has no ties to the three individuals and said that its program for preventing sexual abuse is among the country's best.

But the protesters -- David Clohessy, director of the Survival Network of those Abused by Priests, and Anne Barrett Doyle, of BishopAccountability.org -- were not optimistic.

"The bishop is responsible for the safety and well-being of his flock," said Clohessy, a Missouri resident who directs the Chicago-based organization. "Each of these three has spent time in this diocese and is still walking free and dangerous."

Long, the third person cited, has thus far stayed out of the public spotlight. She never worked for the Bridgeport Diocese and no longer lives in the area, according to property records and someone who worked with her from 2005 to 2009 in New Canaan. A message left at her Massachusetts residence was not returned Monday.

Long was publicly identified by the New Hampshire attorney general's office in March 2009 as the woman accused of sexually assaulting a girl repeatedly in Concord, N.H., in the 1970s. At the time, Long was working as a youth minister at St. John the Evangelist Church in the town.

That state's Attorney General's Office spent much of the last decade investigating the Manchester, N.H., diocese and its handling of decades of sexual molestation allegations, said Will Delker, senior assistant attorney general of New Hampshire. The probe culminated with the publication of nearly 10,000 pages of material, in which Long's case was included.

A flurry of emails exchanged by that office and a private attorney in 2008 reveal that Long was accused of abusing a girl for four to five years. The illicit contact allegedly ceased when the girl was diagnosed with an ulcer when she was 15.

Long was never charged with a crime, Delker said; the statute of limitations for the alleged offenses expired in the mid-1980s. Long left New Hampshire around that time, became a Protestant, and then eventually arrived in New Canaan midway through the last decade, according to the documents made public by that Attorney General's Office.

The protest came one week after the diocese agreed to pay $200,000 to the family of a man who claimed he was abused as a child by Fabbozzi, who was fired by St. Theresa's in 2002 after complaints against him surfaced.

Carrier was suspended from his Jesuit order in December for allegations that he sexually and mentally abused Douglas Perlitz -- who was sentenced that month to nearly 20 years in federal prison for abusing homeless boys in Haiti.

Reach Tim Loh at tloh@ctpost.com or 203-330-6377. Follow at twitter.com/timloh