Blair’s message was read before Masses at several churches throughout the diocese this weekend and a video of Blair discussing his plans was posted on the diocese website.

Blair’s statement also referenced the recent controversy involving Theodore McCarrick, former archbishop of Washington, who was forced to resign following numerous accusations of sex abuse from both adult seminarians and children. McCarrick was a cardinal when he stepped down and was seen as a close ally of the pope.

It also comes on the heels of the October release of a 1,400-page grand jury report by Pennsylvania’s Attorney General Josh Shapiro that named at least 300 priests accused of child sex abuse by more than 1,000 victims throughout the state going back about 30 years. Shapiro called it a “systematic cover-up by senior church officials in Pennsylvania and at the Vatican.” Its release rekindled the priest sexual abuse scandal that rocked the Catholic Church a decade ago.

Blair seems to be taking a path similar to the one Bishop Frank J. Caggiano, of the Diocese of Bridgeport, took earlier this year when he announced a review of that diocese’s priest files. In October, Caggiano announced that a complete review would be conducted by former Superior Court Judge Robert Holzberg and that his report would be due in the spring.

In early November, Caggiano released preliminary findings that showed the diocese paid $52.5 million to settle 156 allegations of sexual abuse of children since 1953 and that the church is still paying eight priests who abused children. An analysis determined that 87.8 percent of the settlements, totaling $46.2 million, were for allegations of abuse against 12 priests, each with multiple claims against them. One priest had claims that resulted in payments totaling $11.9 million.

It was the first time that the Bridgeport diocese had given an overview of how much the priest-abuse scandal has cost. Caggiano had promised to give a financial accounting in a letter to parishioners in September. Like many others, the diocese had been criticized for keeping secret many of the claims against its priests and for protecting priests who faced multiple abuse claims. One of its most notorious priests, Laurence Brett, fled the country and hid for years, while others were moved to other churches in the diocese with impunity. Former Bishop Edward R. Egan once said in a deposition that sexual abuse by clergy “happen in such small numbers.”

While Bridgeport’s pedophiles may have gained more notoriety, the Hartford diocese has had its share of pedophile priests, as well, and many were shuffled around the diocese or had secret settlements.

In 2005 then-Archbishop Henry Mansell announced the diocese was going to pay 43 victims of priest sexual abuse a total of $22 million to settle pending lawsuits and threatened lawsuits. The settlement at the time was among the largest in the country paid by a diocese and, even as that settlement was announced, church officials acknowledged it represented only a portion of abuse cases in the archdiocese.

That settlement took two years to negotiate through U.S. Magistrate William I. Garfinkel , who heard the stories of the survivors. Many of the cases dated as far back as the early 1970s.

The diocese did name all 14 priests that were accused of abuse and were part of that settlement. According to the Hartford Archdiocese, most of the priests were either dead or retired, such as the Rev. Ivan Ferguson, the Rev. Felix Maguire, the Rev. Stephen Crowley and the Rev. Daniel McSheffery who were all the subjects of multiple lawsuits. It also named three priests who were stripped of their faculties as priests, including the Rev. Stephen Foley, who was the chaplain of the Connecticut State Police when some of the abuse allegations were made against him.

Only one priest — the Rev. William Przybylo — was still in active ministry when the settlement was announced. Despite the settlement, Przybylo denied any allegations made against him. He has since retired.

The Hartford diocese has been the subject of a few more recent lawsuits.

Last montha lawsuit was filed in Superior Court in Waterbury that alleged the Rev. Walter Vichas sexually abused Kevin DiStasio while the boy was putting on his vestments for a morning Mass at the Blessed Sacrament Church on Robbins Street in Waterbury. DiStasio is named in the lawsuit and in a press release disseminated by a law firm representing him. Vichas died in 2008 at age 83. He had never been previously accused of sexual abuse.

Last April, a lawsuit filed against the Hartford Archdiocese alleged that in the 1970s the Rev. Gregory M. Altermatt sexually abused a boy named Matthew Cornell, whose mother had died.

The lawsuit, filed in Superior Court in New Haven on behalf of Matthew Cornell, names the Rev. Gregory M. Altermatt as the alleged abuser.

Cornell’s attorney, Thomas McNamara, said that Cornell didn’t want to file the lawsuit under a pseudonym because “he wanted [the church] to know who he was.”

The lawsuit alleged the abuse started while Altermatt was a priest at St. Matthew Church in Bristol, which was his first assignment after being ordained as a priest in 1976, and when Cornell was as young as 7 years old. Altermatt is on senior status and lives in New Haven.