Report: Former Bridgeport bishop broke law, was ‘outright hostile’ to abuse victims

Bishop Edward Egan at the Catholic Center in Bridgeport, Conn. in February 1999. He is celebrating his tenth year as head of the Diocese of Bridgeport. Bridgeport, Feb. 18, 1999. Bishop Edward Egan at the Catholic Center in Bridgeport, Conn. in February 1999. He is celebrating his tenth year as head of the Diocese of Bridgeport. Bridgeport, Feb. 18, 1999. Photo: Helen Neafsey, File Photo Photo: Helen Neafsey, File Photo Image 1 of / 36 Caption Close Report: Former Bridgeport bishop broke law, was ‘outright hostile’ to abuse victims 1 / 36 Back to Gallery

BRIDGEPORT— Bishops Walter Curtis and Edward Egan failed to comply with the state law mandating priests report allegations of child abuse to law enforcement, according to a report on sex abuse in the Bridgeport diocese disclosed Tuesday.

Egan, who would later be elevated to cardinal of New York, was outright hostile to abuse victims, the report states.

The report notes the existence of sexual abuse by certain priests of this diocese, particularly abuse of children, was known to the diocesan leadership at least as early as 1953. A total of 281 individuals have been identified as having been abused during the diocese’s approximately 66-year history, nearly all when they were minors, by 71 priests. The 71 priests constitute 4.7 percent of the approximately 1,500 priests who have served the diocese since 1953, the report states.

The diocese paid about $56 million to settle abuse claims.

“Until the early 2000s, the collective response of diocesan officials to the sexual abuse crisis was inadequate in nearly every way, but the single gravest moral and legal lapse was the consistent practice of bishops Lawrence Shehan, Curtis, and Egan — over four decades — of leaving abusive priests in service, and thereby making it possible for them to continue committing abusive acts,” the report states.

Until the release of the report, the diocese stated on its website it found 41 credibly accused clerics. During a news conference at the Bridgeport law office of Pullman and Comley, Bishop Frank Caggiano said they would reinvestigate the abuse claims against the other 30 priests cited in the report.

“In our interviews we repeatedly asked administrators who had served under bishops Curtis and Egan, ‘How could this happen?,’” the report states. “Almost to a person the response was, ‘If only we had known then what we know now we would have acted differently.’”

No one will face criminal charges as a result of the report. Unlike the grand jury report that uncovered sex abuse and abuse coverups in Pennsylvania dioceses last year, the Bridgeport diocese report was done strictly for transparency.

In addition, the timing of the report comes after the state’s statute of limitations on the filing of lawsuits had passed. The New York legislature recently passed the Child Victim Act extending the statute of limitations for abuse lawsuits and the Connecticut legislature is considering doing the same.

“As the Diocese of Bridgeport makes efforts to bring justice to all victims of clergy sexual abuse, it should follow the example taken by their colleagues in New York, including Timothy Cardinal Dolan and publicly support similiar legislation here in Connecticut,” said Douglas Mahoney, whose Bridgeport law firm, Tremont, Sheldon, Robinson and Mahoney, has represented more than two dozen priest abuse victims.

Last year, Caggiano hired retired state Superior Court judge Robert Holzberg to investigatebu abuse in the diocese. The bishop said Holzberg would have complete and unrestricted access to all diocesan files, records and archives dating from 1953, and the opportunity to interview diocesan clergy and administrators with information relevant to his inquiry.

Egan, who was Bridgeport bishop from 1988 to 2000, died in March 2015. Curtis died in 1997 and Shehan died in 1984.

The report continues: “Bishop Egan’s response was profoundly unsympathetic, inadequate, and inflammatory. He openly acknowledged to his staff, and signaled to the public through his behavior, that he believed his principal responsibility was to preserve the assets and reputation of the diocese rather than to work for the well-being of survivors and secure justice for them.”

The report states that Egan adopted a “scorched-earth” litigation strategy that not only revictimized survivors of abuse but cost the diocese more in settlements.

Hearst Connecticut Media previously reported that Egan had raged at a sobbing teenage girl who had been impregnated by a priest.

Caggiano, who became bishop in September 2013, promised accountability and transparency regarding claims of abuse by priests in the diocese.

“When you have a wound you need to clean it out completely and that is what has been done,” the bishop said at the news conference.

While the report lauded Bishop William Lori, who took over after Egan, for settling abuse cases and approaching victims, it did criticize him for engaging in a multi-year “unsuccessful and, we conclude, unnecessary court fight with The New York Times and other media outlets over whether sealed information produced during discovery would be disclosed to the press.”

In detailing abuses, the report continually mentions the efforts of Monsignor Laurence Bronkiewicz on Egan’s behalf to hide sex abuse allegations. Victims referred to Bronkiewicz as Egan’s “henchman.”

Bronkiewicz recently retired as pastor of St. Mary’s Parish in Ridgefield.

“I’ll be retiring as a pastor, but I’m not retiring as a priest,” he said then. “I’ll remain active here in the Diocese of Bridgeport.”

Caggiano told Hearst Connecticut Media on Tuesday that it is a coincidence that Bronkiewicz retired before the report was made public.

“He has not seen this,” the bishop said of the report. “I plan to talk to him once he has had a chance to read it. I don’t see ... any conical infractions, but I think I need to have him walk through the report with me.”