Files on Priest Sex Abuse to Be Opened

In what cannot be good news for the Roman Catholic Church, the Connecticut Supreme Court has ruled that thousands of pages of documents from sexual-abuse lawsuits filed against priests in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport that had been kept sealed for more than a decade must be made public. It will be interesting to see what information the files disclose about recently retired Cardinal Egan of New York who for a while headed up the Diocese of Bridgeport after he had served as one of Cardinal Law's henchmen in the Archdiocese of Boston. Like so many members of the hierarchy, Egan fought tooth and claw to keep church records out of the court cases. As the saying goes, if one has nothing to hide, they don't act as they do. I suspect there is much that will rightly inflame public opinion against the morally bankrupt Church. Here are some story highlights from the New York Times:

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Connecticut’s highest court ruled on Friday that thousands of pages of documents from sexual-abuse lawsuits filed against priests in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport that had been kept sealed for more than a decade must be made public. The 4-to-1 decision by the State Supreme Court was the latest milestone in a seven-year legal fight between the Diocese of Bridgeport and four newspapers: The New York Times, The Hartford Courant, The Boston Globe and The Washington Post.

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The documents include depositions by victims, priests and leaders of the Bridgeport Diocese, which was overseen between 1988 and 2000 by Bishop Edward M. Egan, who later became the archbishop of New York. Cardinal Egan retired last month, after nine years in New York.

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Under Bishop Egan’s leadership, the Bridgeport Diocese mounted a vigorous defense against the victims’ claims. His defense theory, reported widely at the time, was that the diocese was not liable because diocesan priests were not employees of the diocese but private contractors.

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Barbara Blaine, president of SNAP, the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, which has been highly critical of the way the church handled accusations against predator priests, applauded the decision. In a statement, she said, “This much remains unchanged in the church: no matter what the cost, bishops will fight tooth and nail to the bitter end to keep hidden evidence that they ignored and concealed devastating child felonies.”