MANCHESTER (CT)
Journal Inquirer
January 26, 2019
By Chris Powell
At the admirable direction of Archbishop Leonard Blair, the Catholic Archdiocese of Hartford this week more or less came clean about the sexual abuse perpetrated by its priests during the last six decades.
The archdiocese identified 48 priests who had been credibly accused and reported that it had paid more than $50 million in the resulting damage claims. About half the priests cited are dead and most of the misconduct seems to have occurred prior to 1990, though it wasn’t acknowledged and its victims compensated for many years. The archdiocese has commissioned a retired Superior Court judge to investigate and report on the scandal.
Some of the victims seem to want to be victims forever, but the biggest victim here is the church itself, having betrayed the trust of parishioners for so long and covered up until recently and then suffering a devastating financial penalty. Institutional charity and spirituality itself have been gravely damaged just when they are most needed, what with the country and Connecticut falling apart in hateful politics and incompetence.
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