The Curtis File
Hartford Courant
March 17, 2002
http://www.ctnow.com/news/specials/hc-curtisquotes0317.artmar17,1,1275337.story?coll=hc-headlines-home
[See also Egan
Protected Abusive Priests, the main article of this feature, with
links to related articles.]
Before Bishop Edward M. Egan took over the Bridgeport diocese in 1988,
Bishop Walter Curtis ran it for 27 years. Excerpts from Curtis' depositions,
which were sealed by the court:
On transferring priests:
Q: What was the purpose, Bishop, of the reassigning
to a different parish?
Curtis: Well, I presume it was to allow him to have
a fresh start.
Q: All right, when he was assigned to a different
parish, would anyone be advised of the problem which he had previously
had?
Curtis: No.
Q: Were there any priests during the time that you
were bishop that were transferred to a different diocese because they
were found to be guilty, if you will, of pedophilic conduct in the Diocese
of Bridgeport?
Curtis: Yes.
On pedophilia:
Q: Did you understand that to be a temporary condition
or a disease, or what was your understanding of it when you were bishop
of Bridgeport?
Curtis: I don't think I saw this is as a permanent
condition. It was a - more incidental.
Q: More incidental. And what do you mean by incidental,
if I may ask? Incidental to what?
Curtis: Well, it would happen on occasion. It wasn't
a sort of a, it wasn't - I'm not sure how to state it.
Q: In other words, it wasn't a continual thing. It
was an occasional thing?
Curtis: Yes. Yes.
On secrecy:
Q: You had mentioned before that there were times
that you would take a complaint in regard to a priest and take it out
of the file. I think you said because it was old, or -
Curtis: Out of the secret file.
Q: Out of the secret file, OK, and where would you
put that when you took it out?
Curtis: I would destroy it.
Q: You'd destroy it.
Curtis: Yeah.
Q: And what was - give me an example of what would
be the reason you would do that.
Curtis: Well, it would be - it would be an antiquated
issue, happened so long before, there was no point in preserving it
any longer.
|