Religion
Independent Investigation Announced Into Bridgeport Diocese’s Past Handling of Clergy Sex Abuse Charges
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Bishop Frank Caggiano, head of the Diocese of Bridgeport, the largest religious organization in Fairfield County and in Darien, has announced an investigation into how the diocese reacted in past decades to charges of sexual abuse of minors by priests. Leading the investigation will be a non-Catholic retired judge with experience investigating sex abuse charges. On Thursday, Caggiano said in a speech at a church Synod in Rome that recent news of Catholic clergy sex-related scandals has degraded trust in the administration of the Catholic Church. He said bishops “must continue to face courageously and honestly the betrayal of young people by clerics to whom they were entrusted.”
Background
This summer there were reports that Archbishop Theodore McCarrick had been accused of sexual abuse of teenagers, and sexual coercion of seminarians and young priests. Also, a Pennsylvania grand jury released a report detailing incidents of clerical sexual abuse across that state for decades, and prosecutors in other states have announced that they are starting or considering similar wide-ranging investigations.