By Mark Davis
WTNH
March 6, 2008
http://www.wtnh.com/Global/story.asp?S=7978442
(WTNH) _ Connecticut's Archbishop says the Catholic Church is doing more to combat child sex abuse than any institution in the nation. The remark comes just one day after another sex abuse settlement.
The church agreed just yesterday to settle a case with a former altar boy who is one of several grown men who have claimed a priest, who was at one time the State Police Chaplain, was a child sex abuser.
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The Catholic Bishops of Connecticut were at the State Capitol lobbying legislators in favor of a state earned income tax credit for the poor, compassion on the issue of immigration and counseling for teenagers receiving abortions.
Their lobbying comes on the day after the Archdiocese announced it will pay nearly $600,000 to settle a lawsuit against the Reverend Stephen Foley -- confronted here by News Channel 8's Alan Cohn back in 2003. It's the 12th child sex abuse settlement the archdiocese has paid out to settle claims against him.
"What we don't realize in the United States -- is that the matter of sexual abuse of minors is a huge societal problem," Archbishop Henry Mansell said. "The Catholic Church and Catholic Priests in specific, are a minimal fraction of that. Every case is one case too many."
"I don't know another institution that's doing as much on the matter of sexual abuse of minors today in the United States as the Catholic Church.," Mansell noted.
The Archbishop was applauded by church members present at the capitol today for his statements. The Foley settlement came just as jury selection was about to begin in this latest case.
Previous lawsuits resulted in millions being awarded to more than 40 men who claimed they were sexually abused by priests -- including Foley.
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