FALL RIVER (MA)
Cape Cod Times
By CURT BROWN
cbrown@s-t.com
May 13, 2014
FALL RIVER — Former Fall River Bishop Daniel A. Cronin and the Fall River Diocese failed to supervise a priest who sexually abused two Falmouth altar boys from the late 1970s to the mid-1980s, according to a lawsuit filed in Connecticut.
The suit, filed in the Judicial District of Hartford, names Cronin and the diocese as defendants. Cronin headed the diocese for 21 years until he left in December 1991 to become archbishop of the Hartford Diocese.
The 50-page complaint alleges Cronin did not properly supervise the late Monsignor Maurice Souza, a New Bedford native accused in court documents of sexually abusing the two altar servers beginning when they were 9 and 10 years old when he was assigned to St. Anthony’s Parish in East Falmouth.
The abuse of the victims continued until they were 17 years old, according to Robert Hoatson, president of Road to Recovery Inc., a New Jersey nonprofit charity that assists victims of sexual abuse and their families and is an advocate for the plaintiffs in this case.
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