HARTFORD (CT)
Fox 61 News
February 4, 2019
By Matt Caron
The Catholic Church is rooted in faith but mired in accusations of some priests preying on children. Victims are now coming forward claiming clergy violated their most sacred trust.
For many religion is their moral compass for a mortal life. You confess your sins — and now, church leaders are seeking a repentance of their own. “To be frank, the Archbishop knows that he is going to get what he is going to get.”
Fox 61 sat down for a candid conversation with the retired judge Antonio Robaina. He’s leading the independent investigation into clergy sex abuse. We asked, “How can hired and independent go together? “ The condition of the hiring is independence. It says in the agreement that we have that we are working independently and have no supervision and no restriction,” explained Robaina.
He’s been granted unprecedented access to church records. Robaina will be pouring through documents dating back to 1953.
Q: How do you plan on approaching your investigation?
ROBAINA: “Well that’s a great question because the immediate problem is a logistical one the volume of records is huge.”
This crisis of faith is affecting the church financially. They’ve paid out 51-million to settle 140 lawsuits involving credibly accused clergy.
Q: “How are you going to define the term credibly accused in your investigation.”
ROBAINA: “I think we’ll have to cross that bridge when we get to it. I’m not committed to adopting the churches own term or their own criteria.”
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