HARTFORD (CT)
Hartford Courant
December 22, 2019
By Dave Altimari
Facing a declining number of Catholics attending Mass, the Catholic Church closed churches and struggled with new revelations about abusive priests during the past decade.
In 2016, the church announced plans to close or consolidate dozens of parishes, citing fewer registered Catholic households and a shortage of priests. Since 1965, the Hartford Archdiocese reported, there has been a 69% decline in church attendance.
Meanwhile, a grand jury investigation in Pennsylvania in 2018 that led to hundreds of priests being accused of abuse rekindled the sexual abuse scandal that rocked the Catholic Church in Connecticut and around the country more than a decade ago.
Looking back over the past decade, Courant editors and reporters have selected Connecticut’s top news stories. The continuing challenges facing the Catholic Church were among the stories that shaped the decade.
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