NORWICH (CT)
CT Insider [Norwalk CT]
April 3, 2026
By Liz Hardaway
A former priest said the church failed to investigate after he reported he was sexually harassed by a senior priest more than a decade prior.
Jonathan Ficara detailed the incident and the aftermath in a public letter to Pope Leo XIV, which was published by the National Catholic Reporter on March 25.
In the letter, Ficara asks for a series of safeguards to protect victims of sexual abuse, including education on reporting mechanisms, mandatory documentation, transparency and protections against retaliation.
He submitted an abuse claim against the Diocese of Norwich in 2025
Ficara also filed documents with the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Connecticut that chronicled the abuse, the Diocese’s lack of action and his attempts of resolution for more than a decade.
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Norwich filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2021 after facing upward of 60 sexual abuse lawsuits, many stemming from allegations of sexual abuse of dozens of boys who attended the Mount Saint John School in the 1990s. The United States Bankruptcy Court approved a reorganization plan, including a $31 million settlement fund for sexual abuse victims, in May 2025.
Ficara also submitted a formal settlement request for $300,000 to Bishop Richard Reidy in June 2025, citing financial, vocational and emotional harm. During a remote hearing for the bankruptcy case on Feb. 19, attorneys in the case said they reached an agreed-upon settlement of $20,000.
Ficara said he was sexually harassed by Monsignor Anthony Rosaforte the night before his ordination in 2014. Ficara disclosed the incident to Bishop Michael Cote several months later, believing the church would investigate.
The Diocese of Norwich did not respond when asked multiple times for comment on this story. Rosaforte is listed as the rector of Cathedral of St. Patrick in Norwich online as of April 2.
Reidy did give a comment to the National Catholic Reporter, stating that he could not comment on the published letter.
“However, in all matters, I take very seriously the duty to investigate allegations and complaints in accordance with the applicable requirements of canon and civil law, including the confidentiality of investigations and any legal processes that may follow,” he told the outlet.
Ficara’s letter was published shortly after the Diocese of Norwich announced it had placed a Willimantic priest on leave following allegations of abuse in Connecticut and an indictment in Maryland.
In his letter, Ficara said that, after he reported the harassment to Cote, there was no investigation.
“No record was kept,” he wrote. “No protective or corrective action was taken. Instead, I was advised to distance myself quietly, and the burden of managing the situation was placed upon me.”
Ficara said that, only after stepping away from the active priesthood in October 2022, he could seek justice.
“While I remained in ministry, my ability to pursue justice was constrained not because the harm was unclear, but because the structure itself shaped how it could be understood and addressed,” he wrote.
Ficara said that he learned in March 2024 that no record of his disclosure concerning the sexual harassment existed and it hadn’t been investigated.
“This revelation was not only painful but deeply disorienting, confirming the Diocese had failed to protect me or act on my behalf,” he wrote in court filings.
Ficara filed a formal written complaint to the diocese in April 2024 and initiated a Vos Estis Lux Mundi process, which would assess the bishop’s handling of Ficara’s disclosure. Ficara later learned that Rosaforte was not informed of his complaint until the Vos Estis Lux Mundi process began.
“When the norms of Vos Estis were later applied in my case, my testimony was taken and I was informed that it was credible and that diocesan procedures had not been followed,” Ficara wrote. “Yet the process remained internal and its outcomes opaque. I was provided no written findings, no record of conclusions, and no explanation of what resulted.”
Ficara said Cote retired in September 2024 and, after that, it appeared the process either stalled or did not conclude. He noted that no public statement has been issued regarding a final resolution.
The diocesan canonical investigation into Ficara’s original complaint regarding Rosaforte’s conduct began in July 2025 after Ficara brought it to the attention of Reidy, who had been recently installed, he wrote. Shortly after a meeting with Reidy and the head of the Diocesan Review Board, he was informed that the board had “reviewed my case, found my testimony credible, and that a canonical penal process against Msgr. Rosaforte would proceed,” Ficara wrote in court documents.
Ficara said that, as far as he’s aware, the investigation remains ongoing.
Ficara expressed concern at the current process for victims coming forward, saying they’re insufficiently safeguarded.
“My experience reveals not only a failure of action, but the limits of a structure that lacks clear, independent and durable protections for those seeking justice from within it,” he wrote. “I do not write this to assign blame to individuals, but to name a structural reality that stands in tension with the church’s own moral teaching. A system that requires the vulnerable to choose between fidelity and truth places them in an impossible moral bind. It risks confusing obedience with silence, unity with denial and endurance with holiness. If my experience is not to be repeated, then the conditions that rendered justice inaccessible must be examined with equal honesty.”
In his letter, Ficara suggested ways that could address the structural vulnerabilities, such as education for seminarians and newly ordained clergy regarding reporting mechanisms, rights and safeguards, a clear and independent way for clergy to report harassment or misconduct, protections against retaliation, mandatory documentation, and transparency. He also suggested that investigations be conducted independently, that victims have access to independent pastoral, psychological and practical support and a transparent accountability process be established for episcopal failures.
“Most Holy Father, I still love the church. I still believe in her mission and in the Gospel she proclaims,” Ficara wrote in the letter. “My life today is one of service, healing and accompaniment — values I learned precisely through my priestly formation. But I can no longer pretend that my experience was an anomaly. It reflects a deeper tension between hierarchical self-protection and the church’s call to justice. I offer this witness not in bitterness, but in hope that those who seek justice within the church’s walls are not required to leave them in order to find it.”
To report inappropriate conduct of any kind by a Diocesan Bishop please contact ReportBishopAbuse.org or call 1-800-276-1562. To report inappropriate contact by a representative of the Diocese of Norwich or for assistance for victims, please call The Diocesan Reporting Line at 1-800-624-7407.