Monsignor in Bridgeport Diocese Disputes Sexual Abuse Report Findings, Demands Apology

By Daniel Tepfer
CT Insider
October 16, 2019

https://www.ctinsider.com/news/ctpost/article/Monsignor-in-Bridgeport-diocese-disputes-sexual-14539612.php

Monsignor Laurence Bronkiewicz inside St. Mary Parish in 2009.

BRIDGEPORT — A recently retired senior official of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport, cited in a report for actively participating in hiding clergy sexual abuse, claims he was “thrown under the bus,” and is demanding the bishop apologize.

“Now, normally people have to wait until after death to be canonized, but you and the current Archbishop of Baltimore (William Lori) found a way to attain saintly status right here and now and I’m far from being alone among God’s people to have noticed that,” Monsignor Laurence Bronkiewicz states in an email to Bishop Frank J. Caggiano that was obtained by Hearst Connecticut Media. “Unfortunately, the Caggiano report and your press conference accomplished their objective by throwing me under the bus as the saying goes and ‘me’ includes [sic] my good name and reputation which has taken me a lifetime to build with God’s help.”

Emailed for comment Wednesday, Bronkiewicz replied, “Dan, my email to the Bishop is self-explanatory, and I hope that you will understand that.”

On Oct. 1, the diocese released a report on a yearlong investigation by retired Superior Court Judge Robert Holzberg into clergy sexual abuse in the diocese.

The report identified a total of 281 people who had been abused as children by 71 priests since 1953 costing the diocese about $56 million in settlements. The report also cited bishops Walter Curtis and Edward Egan for failing to comply with state law mandating the reporting of sexual abuse.

Bronkiewicz served as Egan’s right-hand man and has been referred to by sexual abuse survivors as the bishop’s “henchman.”

The report cited several instances where Bronkiewicz, following Egan’s orders, took action to hide allegations of sexual abuse against priests and to transfer the accused priests to other locations where they could have further contact with children.

Following the press conference earlier this month on the abuse report, Caggiano told Hearst that it was a coincidence that Bronkiewicz had retired before the report’s release. The bishop said he intended to discuss the report with Bronkiewicz.

“The Bishop regrets Monsignor Bronkiewicz’s words, which will further wound victims of abuse and all those who have demanded a truthful and comprehensive account of the abuse crisis in the diocese,” the diocese said in a statement issued Wednesday. “To portray himself as a victim of the crisis when so many young people were abused and experienced lifelong trauma is at the very least dismissive of their suffering and their need for transparency and truth on the part of church leaders. His remarks are both insensitive and inappropriate given the heinous crime of child sexual abuse and the church’s past failure to respond to the crisis.”

Bronkiewicz was made head of the diocese when Egan was promoted to cardinal of New York. He was reassigned as pastor of St. Mary’s Parish in Ridgefield when Lori began as bishop.

In his lengthy email, Bronkiewicz criticizes the findings in the report. He demands a letter of apology from the bishop to be published on the diocese’s website and distributed to every parish and a letter of apology from Holzberg’s team.

“All of your report’s other victims are your dead episcopal predecessors and my own deceased predecessor as vicar for clergy,” he wrote. “Perhaps you didn’t notice, but they are already dead — you did not have to drive the bus over them and their reputations and what you did to them has not registered on the applause meter!”

The email states that until the afternoon of Sept. 30 neither the bishop nor Ann McCrory, the diocese’s chief legal officer, ever told Bronkiewicz that his name appeared in the abuse report.

“To the best of my recollection, during the three and a half-hour interview with the Holzberg team, at no point did Holzberg or the other lawyer ask me about the material referring to me in the report,” Bronkiewicz states.

When McCrory did call him, she told him his name only appeared three or four times. In fact, his name appears in 11 places in the report.

“At the outset of this investigation we committed ourselves to a process that is fair, thorough and honest,” Holzberg said in a statement. “We believe that we have been scrupulous in adhering to those values. Our findings and conclusions are based on a detailed review of records spanning over 65 years, interviews of survivors, diocesan administrators and consultations with nationally known experts. We stand by those findings and conclusions and the integrity of our investigative process."

Bronkiewicz, although retired, is currently “helping out” at Saint Thomas More Church in Darien.

“In closing may I express the very serious hope that you will never do to another priest, deacon or layperson in this or any other diocese what you have done to me,” he states in his email.