Archdiocese of Hartford announces it will release names of accused pedophile priests, conduct probe into decades of abuse cases

HARTFORD (CT)
Hartford Courant

December 16, 2018

By Dave Altimari

Following the path of many Catholic Church leaders across the country, Archbishop Leonard Blair announced this weekend that he will release next month the names of all clergy from the Archdiocese of Hartford credibly accused of sexual abuse and hire an independent party to review the church’s personnel files going back to 1953.

“I wish to announce in January the Archdiocese of Hartford will be publishing the names of archdiocesan clergy who have been the object of lawsuits and legal settlements, or otherwise credibly accused, and the names of religious order priests and priests from other dioceses who have been credibly accused of an offense that took place in the Archdiocese,” Blair wrote in a seven-paragraph statement.

Blair went on to say that the archdiocese will be hiring someone to do an “independent review of all our clergy files to identify any additional names from the present going back to 1953,” which is the year the Archdiocese of Hartford was established.

“The publication of names will be updated as any new information becomes available. Finally, the Archdiocese will be publishing the financial outlay that has been made as a result of the abuse of minors by clergy and the sources of these funds,” Blair wrote.

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