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Diocese of Norwich says retired judge in midst of sweeping investigation of decades' worth of child sex abuse claims

Hartford Courant - 11/9/2020

The Diocese of Norwich has announced that a retired Connecticut judge is in the midst of a sweeping, unfettered investigation into sexual abuses suffered by children at the hands of its priests as the Catholic institution continues to rectify its past and protect some of its most vulnerable parishioners.

In a letter read across the diocese during Sunday Mass, Bishop Michael R. Cote said that retired Judge Michael Riley and a team of lawyers have been digging through archives dating back to the inception of the diocese nearly 70 years ago. Cote assured that Riley has been given unrestricted access to these key documents and diocese leaders.

“It is in a spirit of accountability and transparency that I have invited Judge Riley and the team from Pullman & Comley to conduct this investigation,” Cote said in a statement. “I look forward to their report and I believe that their investigation will help to clarify the thorough work done last year in compiling and publishing the list of clergy with substantive allegations involving sexual abuse of a minor.”

The investigation follows similar efforts that were undertaken in the Archdiocese of Hartford and the Diocese of Bridgeport in recent years. The Diocese of Norwich includes Windham, New London, Tolland and Middlesex counties.

Conversations about a thorough independent investigation began in the spring of 2019, and work began in October of that year, Cote said. His public announcement about the investigation came about nine months after volunteers with both law enforcement and canonical experience helped uncover 43 names of priests associated with the diocese that had “substantive” allegations of child sexual abuse made against them.

At the time of that announcement, Cote said the diocese had paid out nearly $8 million in settlements with victims since 1977. Diocese officials did not say at the time if they would retain an outsider investigator, but the Archdiocese of Hartford and Diocese of Bridgeport had both hired former judges to investigate child sex abuse claims made against priests.

Cotes said more needed to be learned from the initial report on the 43 priests so he met with Riley in April 2019. He said he hopes that Riley and his team will make clear some of the details regarding those 43 priests, though he previously said that none of the 43 are currently active within the diocese.

It is unclear when Riley will conclude his probe, but Cote said he is committed to making the results that look at both the sexual abuses by priests and the failures of church leadership public.

The Norwich Diocese is the smallest in the state with about 76 priests and 228,000 Catholic parishioners. There are 131 priests and about 538,000 Catholics in the Archdiocese of Hartford and 82 priests and 410,000 Catholics in the Bridgeport Diocese.

Several weeks before the Norwich Diocese made public the list of clergy with claims of child sex abuse made against them, Hartford’s Archbishop Leonard Blair provided parishioners with a similar list naming 48 priests that were subject to credible claims of sexual abuse. The Hartford Archdiocese spent more than $50 million settling lawsuits with victims in cases dating back decades.

The Archdiocese of Hartford hired retired Judge Antonio Robaina to conduct a review in early 2019 but no report has been issued.

Former state Superior Court Judge Robert Holzberg, a colleague of Riley’s at Pullman & Comley, conducting an exhaustive investigation into the sexual abuse of children in the Diocese of Bridgeport, issuing a report last fall that more than 280 children suffered abuses at the hands of 71 priests in the diocese dating back to the 1950s.

Holzberg’s scathing report took aim at former Bishops Edward Egan and Walter Curtis for violating state law, destroying documents and ignoring claims made against priests.

As has been seen locally and nationally, many priests faced little consequence for their actions and were often moved to another church or diocese after claims of sexual abuse were made.

Nicholas Rondinone can be reached at nrondinone@courant.com.

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