CONNECTICUT
CT Post
By Daniel Tepfer Updated Friday, September 16, 2016
BRIDGEPORT — In 2001, The Rev. Robert Morrissey, then pastor of St. Mary’s Church in Ridgefield, angrily denounced from the pulpit the growing priest abuse scandal as a witch hunt contending he knew of no priests who had abused children.
One year later he was forced to resign after being confronted with allegations he had molested a 15-year-old boy in the late 1970s.
A lawsuit pending in Superior Court here states he molested a boy at St. Mary’s School in Greenwich.
Lawyers for five alleged male victims, all former altar boys, of five priests in the 1970s and 1980s pressed Thursday for the diocese to make records on the cases public.
“There’s no better proof that bishops aren’t reforming than their continuing legal maneuvers to maintain secrecy about clergy sex crimes and cover ups at all costs,” said David Clohessy, director of the national organization Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, the day after diocese lawyers urged a judge here Thursday to keep records of abuse by priests secret.
“Remember all those pledges by bishops to be ‘transparent’ about clergy sex crimes?” he said. “Clearly those promises were nothing but public relations.”
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