Ex-Hartford Archbishop Mansell Helped Transfer Pedophile Priest From New York To Pennsylvania, Grand Jury Says, by Dave Altimari, Hartford Courant (August 17, 2018)

Ex-Hartford Archbishop Mansell Helped Transfer Pedophile Priest From New York To Pennsylvania, Grand Jury Says

Henry J. Mansell, the retired Archbishop of Hartford, had a role in the 1985 transfer of a known pedophile priest from New York to Pennsylvania, where the priest then had inappropriate contact with school children, a grand jury report released this week reveals.

The report by a Pennsylvania grand jury detailing horrific incidents of child sex abuse by priests also includes other references to Connecticut — including a child pornography case and the treatment of two pedophile priests at the Institute of Living in Hartford. Institute officials previously have said they were unaware the Catholic Church was keeping abusive priests in the ministry after treatment in Hartford.

The nearly 1,400-page report released earlier this week alleged that Pennsylvania church officials covered up child sexual abuse by more than 300 priests over a period of 70 years. The report, which covered six of the state’s eight Catholic dioceses, found more than 1,000 identifiable victims.

“I am not available for comment. The report does not suggest I did anything wrong,’’ Mansell said in a statement released Friday. “We agree with the Pope and the Bishops in the United States regarding what they have said about abuses against children and young people.”

The Pennsylvania grand jury report has stirred strong reaction among church officials in Connecticut, where tens of millions of dollars have been paid in settlements from abuse cases dating back decades. At this weekend’s Masses, priests are scheduled to read a letter from current Hartford Archbishop Leonard Blair that is critical of the way church leaders dealt with pedophile priests.

The grand jury mentions several prominent church officials across the country who assisted in transferring priests accused of child sexual abuse to and from Pennsylvania dioceses.

Mansell served as archbishop in Hartford from 2004 until his retirement in 2013. There is no indication in the report that any of the priests were moved to or from Connecticut. In 2005, the Hartford archdiocese paid a $22 million settlement for child sex-abuse cases that dated back well before Mansell arrived.

In the 1980s, Mansell, was the monsignor in charge of priest transfers in New York. In 1985, he was involved in the case of Father Edmund Parrakow.

According to the new grand jury report, Parrakow was sent to New Mexico for treatment after he was alleged to have abused a boy. While in treatment there, Parrakow acknowledged abusing at least 35 boys.

The records show that Mansell helped get Parrakow transferred to the Diocese of Greensburg, Pa., after promising Greensburg Bishop William Connare that all of Parrakow’s treatment records would be shared with them.

In a letter to Mansell, Connare requested "a complete report on that treatment and [Parrakow’s] needs so that we can consider his needs when the time for an appointment draws near."

Parrakow's complete records from Foundation House, a treatment facility affiliated with a religious order in New Mexico, including those pertaining to his interview when he confessed to having sexually abused 35 boys, were sent to the Archdiocese of New York on Aug. 6, 1985. But the records of the Diocese of Greensburg do not reflect whether this information was provided by New York at that time, the grand jury report concluded.

Parrakow was transferred to Greensburg and later accused of inappropriate behavior with children in that diocese. He was defrocked in 2004.

The grand jury report reveals communication between Mansell and Greensburg Bishop Connare but does not provide details on how the communication was initiated.

Grand jury records also show Mansell attempted to get an assignment in New York Diocese for the Rev. Robert J. Brague, who had gotten a girl pregnant in Pennsylvania in 1988.

The chancellor of the Pennsylvania diocese sent a letter to Mansell thanking him for getting Brague a possible assignment with the New York Diocese, but the transfer never occurred and Brague eventually was sent to Florida.

“Obviously this occurred before Archbishop Mansell came to Hartford,” Hartford Diocese spokesman Father James Shanley said Friday. “Archbishop Mansell held many different positions in pastoral ministry before being appointed as Archbishop of Hartford. The Archdiocese of Hartford and [current] Archbishop [Leonard] Blair know only what you have shared in the report.”

Shanley said that Blair has written a letter to parishioners that will be read at all Masses. In that letter, Blair said it is troubling that bishops appear to have known about some of the conduct and did nothing and haven’t been disciplined in some cases.

“The facts that have come to light over the years have been a painful and rightfully humbling cross for all bishops,” Blair wrote. “I pray daily for the victims of clerical sexual abuse and I ask you to pray for them as well.”

Also buried among the lurid details was a report about a 2012 investigation into child pornography that started in Connecticut and led federal officials to a priest in the Diocese of Harrisburg, Pa.

The grand jury found that Father Donald Cramer was in an online chatroom using the screen name "Bigmark512." While online, he communicated with an individual in Connecticut who eventually was charged criminally for possessing child pornography.

In his online communications, Cramer mentioned he wanted to go to Mexico where he could "rent" boys, the report said.

The report didn’t name the Connecticut man who was arrested on child pornography charges.

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Cramer was not arrested because he was not in possession of child pornography. But the Department of Homeland Security's investigative report listed, in detail, the nature of the e-mail communication in which Cramer expressed an interest in minor boys. The Department of Homeland Security eventually terminated its investigation and closed its file on Cramer.

The report also refers to two priests accused of sexual abuse who were sent to the Institute of Living in Hartford for treatment.

Father Richard Zula was granted a leave of absence in September 1987 and was admitted to the Institute of Living shortly thereafter. He remained a priest until 1996, records show.

The second priest treated at IOL was the Rev. Herbert Shank, who was sent there from December 1994 to mid-1997, records show. The report doesn’t say why Shank was sent there.

Reached Friday, a representative from the Institute of Living declined to comment.

During the height of the priest abuse scandals in the early 2000s, secret court documents that were unsealed revealed that the Institute of Living and the Catholic Church had a longstanding relationship in which priests accused of sexual misconduct were sent there for treatment.

Records show notorious pedophiles such as John Geoghan from Boston and several Bridgeport-area priests were sent to the IOL for treatment and then returned to parishes. In many cases, no one in the parish community were aware the priest had been treated at IOL.

In 2002, officials from the institute told the Courant that they had been deceived by the Roman Catholic Church into providing reports that the church used to keep abusive priests in the ministry.