HARTFORD (CT)
NBC Connecticut [West Hartford, CT]
July 8, 2025
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Hartford has agreed to pay a $2.4 million settlement to a man who says he was sexually abused by a priest more than 100 times over a five-year period, beginning in the 1980s.
The victim, who was an altar boy at St. Adalbert’s School in Enfield, alleges the abuse occurred between 1985 and 1990.
His attorney, Mitchell Garabedian, said the boy was repeatedly taken out of class to serve at funerals, where the abuse would take place.
“My client was an altar server, an altar boy, and he would be taken out of class to go serve a funeral, for instance,” Garabedian said. “Someone should have noticed my client was gone for a long amount of time. After the service, my client would be abused.”
The accused priest, Adolph Renkiewicz, allegedly sexually assaulted the victim dozens of times.
In a statement, the archdiocese said it “continues to apologize and work with victims of clergy sexual abuse and their families to bring them lasting healing.”
The Archdiocese also said the archbishop and his staff are “committed to doing all that is humanly possible to ensure that this never happens again and that our churches are safe places for children and families at all times.”
The settlement is part of a broader reckoning within the catholic church over decades of abuse allegations and institutional failures to protect children.