HARTFORD (CT)
Journal Inquirer
January 23, 2019
By Alex Wood
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Hartford on Tuesday made a major disclosure of information about sexual abuse by clergy, including naming 48 priests it says have been the object of lawsuits or legal settlements — or who have been “credibly accused” of abuse occurring in the archdiocese.
Archbishop Leonard P. Blair took an introspective and penitent tone in a statement he issued about the abuse that has occurred in the archdiocese since its establishment in 1953.
“It is a cause of profound sorrow and of soul-searching for me that we bishops, the church’s pastors, have often failed to grasp the spiritual and moral devastation that results from sexual abuse, either in a misguided attempt to ‘save’ an abuser’s vocation or to shield the church from scandal,” Blair wrote in an open letter to “the Catholic faithful” and other Connecticut residents.
“Whatever institutional worries present themselves to me as a bishop as a result of abuse, it takes only one personal meeting with a victim survivor for me to see that any institutional concerns are insignificant compared to the deep spiritual and psychological wounds and suffering that can and often do result from sexual abuse by a priest,” he continued.
But at the same time, the materials released by the archdiocese make clear its belief that it has made significant strides in dealing with the problem in recent decades.
No Archdiocese of Hartford priest currently serving in the ministry in the archdiocese has “had credible allegations of child sexual abuse asserted” against him, Blair wrote in the open letter.
Elsewhere in the materials released Tuesday, the archdiocese defined a “credible claim” as “one that, under the circumstances known at the time of determination, would cause a prudent person to conclude that there was a significant possibility that the incident occurred.”
The archdiocese went on to say that its public identification of the priests “does not necessarily mean that the accusation has been proven in a court of law or definitively shown to have occurred through a formal process, or has been admitted by the person accused.
“It is also important to keep in mind that the priests who died before any allegation was made against them did not have an opportunity to respond to the allegations,” the archdiocese continued.
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