Brief History of Sex Abuse

by: Alexandra Reed

Sexual abuse allegations in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport, Connecticut, are typical of many U.S. dioceses, in that the accusations go back several decades.

In 1964, a teenage student at Sacred Heart University accused Father Laurence Brett, a spiritual director at the University, of performing oral sex on him and biting his penis to prevent him from ejaculating.

Bishop Walter Curtis discussed the situation with the Vatican representative in Washington, D.C., and decided not to suspend Brett but to send him out of state. Diocese officials were told that "hepatitis was to be feigned" as an excuse for Brett's absence. In seeming exile, Brett was supported financially by the Bridgeport Diocese and was permitted to perform priestly functions. Brett held a variety of ecclesiastical positions in New Mexico, California, and Maryland for the next thirty years, becoming a writer and television minister. In 1991, Bishop Edward M. Egan investigated Brett's case and allowed him to remain in the ministry. When more accusations against Brett surfaced, Egan suspended his priestly faculties.

This ugly incident was the first of many in a history of sexual abuse allegations and cover up spanning nearly a half-century. Two years later, church officials began receiving abuse complaints about Rev. Raymond Pcolka since his first assignment, in 1966, at St. Benedict's Parish in Stamford. He was transferred several times over the years and sent to the Institute of Living for evaluation at least twice. Egan eventually suspended Pcolka in 1992, but continued to pay his salary, provide health benefits and cover the cost of his attorney's fees for several years. In addition, Egan did not make any effort to remove Pcolka from the Priesthood, saying he didn't have sufficient evidence that Pcolka had abused anyone. In 1994, Pcolka exercised his Fifth Amendment privilege more than 100 times when questioned about abuse allegations involving more than a dozen victims over several decades.

New York Cardinal Edward M. Egan, while serving as Bishop of the Bridgeport Roman Catholic Diocese from 1988 to 2000, allowed several priests facing multiple accusations of sexual abuse to continue working for years.

In 1991, Egan appointed Rev. Charles Carr parochial vicar of Saint Andrew Parish in Bridgeport, where he was allowed to minister to children, despite ongoing complaints about pedophilia that had forced Carr into treatment at Hartford's Institute for Living for evaluation at least twice. When the first lawsuit against the Diocese in connection to Carr was served in 1995, Egan suspended Carr and placed him on an indefinite leave of absence.

Former Bridgeport Bishop Walter Curtis, who ran the Diocese for 27 years before Egan, testified in 1995 that the Diocese deliberately shuffled pedophile priests among parishes to give them a "fresh start," and admitted destroying records of complaints against some priests. Curtis also said he didn't believe pedophilia was a permanent condition.