Bridgeport bishop hopes report on abuse brings healing, renewal

WASHINGTON (DC)
Cathiolic News Service

Oct. 3, 2019

By Julie Asher

Retired Connecticut Superior Court Judge Robert Holzberg Oct. 1 released the results of a nearly yearlong independent investigation into the handling of the abuse crisis by the Diocese of Bridgeport, Connecticut.

The investigation covered the approximately 66 years from the establishment of the diocese to the present.

It found that “the existence of sexual abuse by certain priests of this diocese, particularly abuse of children, was known to the diocesan leadership at least as early as 1953. 281 individuals have been identified as having been abused during the diocese’s approximately 66-year history, nearly all when they were minors, by 71 priests.”

“The 71 priests constitute 4.7% of the approximately 1,500 priests who have served the diocese since 1953,” it said.

The report, titled “Clerical Sexual Abuse Accountability Report,” credits Bishop Frank J. Caggiano, who has headed the Bridgeport Diocese since 2013 — and who in October 2018 retained Holzberg and the law firm of Pullman and Comley to conduct this investigation — and his predecessor, then-Bishop William E. Lori, with reversing the diocese’s “approach to reporting abuse and disciplining abusers.”

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