According
to a lawsuit filed Wednesday in New Haven Superior Court, Paturzo was
assigned to the Blessed Sacrament Church in Hamden, which was next door
to the school, and helped coach the
basketball team
, which is how he met Cerninka.
In late 1976, Paturzo befriended Cerninka's parents and then asked Cerninka to play on the
travel team.
According
the lawsuit, Paturzo first molested Cerninka in late 1976 and the abuse
continued through August 1978. Cerninka's attorney, Thomas McNamara,
declined to describe the alleged abuse.
Two men who accused
Paturzo in 2002 said he fondled them in the early 1970s, when he was
working as a deacon but had not yet been ordained
.
Paturzo, who
admitted to the claims made by the two men, was stripped of his priestly
faculties by the archdiocese, and he resigned from his part-time job
as a peer mediator consultant at Quirk Middle School in Hartford. The
archdiocese paid out $22 million in 2005 to settle claims against 14 of
its priests, including Paturzo.
Most recently, Paturzo was known to be working as the
director of the New Day transitional program for criminal offenders in Hartford. Attempts to reach Paturzo Wednesday were unsuccessful.
The
lawsuit claims that church officials failed to report complaints about
Paturzo's sexually abusing at least one other minor to the proper
authorities. According to McNamara, the church knew Paturzo was
molesting boys before he befriended Cerninka.
McNamara said he interviewed the
parents
of one of Paturzo's earlier victims, who told him they reported the
priest's behavior to his superior at Blessed Sacrament Church in the
fall of 1976. The priest then promised the boy's parents it would not
happen again, McNamara said.
The Rev. John Gatzak, spokesman for
the Hartford archdiocese, said Wednesday that the archdiocese has a
policy of not commenting publicly on ongoing litigation. He also said
Paturzo, while not officially defrocked by the Vatican, can no longer
present himself or function as a priest.
"He cannot claim to be a priest, and he cannot
dress like a priest," Gatzak said.
Paturzo,
who was ordained in 1973, was sent for evaluation and treatment at two
psychiatric institutions in the 1990s after the archdiocese received an
anonymous complaint by a
mother
who accused him of fondling her son while he was serving as a deacon in
Hamden. Although that complaint was investigated by state police, it
was not proven.
The second allegation against Paturzo was filed in
February of 2002 by a man who said he was groped by Paturzo in a
Waterbury rectory in 1972.
When that complaint became public, so did the other, and Paturzo was removed from active ministry.
Contact Elizabeth Hamilton at ehamilton@courant.com.
Former Hamden priest named in abuse suit
(
New Haven Register (New Haven, CT) (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)
Feb. 7--A former Hamden man now living in Arizona has filed a lawsuit
against the Archdiocese of Hartford, claiming he was sexually abused by a
priest 30 years ago.
The suit, filed in Superior Court in New Haven by attorney Thomas M.
McNamara of the New Haven firm of McNamara & Goodman, claims that
the former priest, Louis Paturzo, sexually abused the plaintiff from
1976 to 1978 when he was a student at the former Rev. Daniel J. Barry
Junior High School in Hamden.
The suit says that Paturzo, who was a priest at the Church of the
Blessed Sacrament in Hamden, befriended the plaintiff's parents and in
late 1976 asked the boy -- then in seventh grade -- to play on a
traveling basketball team that he coached.
The New Haven Register is withholding the plaintiff's name because it does not identify alleged victims of sexual assault.
The suit claims Paturzo "had the proclivity to sexually abuse, sexually
exploit and sexually assault minor children," and that the archdiocese
and its employees failed to supervise his interaction with minors,
failed to investigate and report his suspicious conduct, and failed to
inform or warn others of his conduct, among other allegations.
Paturzo has been accused of sexual abuse before and is no longer working
as a priest, according to the Rev. John P. Gatzak, spokesman for the
archdiocese. Gatzak on Wednesday didn't have any information about where
Paturzo is now.
McNamara said the abuse had a "deleterious effect" on the plaintiff's
life and that now, at 43, he has "finally realized it was time to stand
up for himself and take back what was taken from him."
The fact that the incidents went unreported to authorities at the time
was another example of the "we protect our own" mentality, McNamara
said. "I've been doing these cases since 1992, and I've never had
knowledge of any priest or bishop complying with the mandate of
reporting" to police.
But Gatzak said things have changed since the U.S. Conference of
Catholic Bishops passed the charter for the protection of children and
young people in 2002. The penalty for being accused of sexual abuse is
that one can no longer function as a priest, he said. Priests are
mandated to immediately report alleged sexual abuse on the part of other
priests to the authorities and the archbishop, he said.
"The church has made remarkable progress" in the protection of young
people against such crimes, and is committed to making sure history
doesn't repeat itself, Gatzak said.
The archdiocese several years ago paid $22 million to settle sexual abuse claim
Priest's Past Overtakes Him
By Matt Burgard and Maurice Timothy Reidy
Hartford Courant [Connecticut]
May 18, 2002
For almost 30 years, the Rev. Louis Paturzo's secret stayed hidden from
the world, driving him, he said, to find redemption in his work in
Hartford's poorest neighborhoods.
On Friday, Paturzo resigned from his job at a Hartford middle school
after acknowledging two complaints that he fondled adolescent boys in
the early 1970s.
Paturzo, best known for his work with troubled youths in the city — a
ministry that included mediating between violent street gangs during the
lethal drug wars of the early 1990s — said he could not discuss
specifics of the allegations.
But he said he has carried with him the guilt and embarrassment of the
acts of a sexually confused young man, and the hope that 21 years of
working with the city's poor residents will lead to forgiveness.
"When people tell me what a great person I am, I can't help but recoil
and shake my head," Paturzo, 54, said in an interview with The Courant.
"In many ways, I do these things to seek atonement."
In two separate but similar complaints, Paturzo is accused of groping
two adolescent boys in the 1970s when he was serving as a deacon, before
his ordination as a Roman Catholic priest.
One complaint was filed anonymously in 1993 by a mother who accused
Paturzo of fondling her son in Hamden 17 years earlier. Although the
complaint was investigated by state police, it was not proven. However,
the Hartford archdiocese sent Paturzo to two institutions for
psychiatric evaluation and therapy.
The second allegation was filed in February by a man, now in his 40s,
who said he was groped by Paturzo in a Waterbury rectory in 1972. The
complainant, a Washington state businessman, has requested a $208,000
settlement from the archdiocese.
Paturzo and a lawyer for the archdiocese both said Friday that the
psychiatrists who evaluated Paturzo concluded that he did not pose a
threat to young people or the rest of the community.
Paturzo resigned from his part-time job as a peer mediator consultant at
Quirk Middle School Friday after two interviews with The Courant about
the complaints. The school system accepted his resignation and the
Hartford archdiocese is investigating the latest complaint.
John W. Sitarz, an archdiocese lawyer, defended the achdiocese's actions
in the mid-1990s."I think it's fair to say that responsible action was
taken in response to that anonymous complaint. I can't get into details,
but in my experience, it was a very appropriate response," he said.
Sitarz said the archdiocese was not aware from the outset that Paturzo
was working at Quirk. When officials learned about it, they were assured
he was primarily working with adult interns and was supervised when
talking to children.
"The only thing that I heard is that in a given case that might be
particularly complex, he will sit down with the intern and the student.
It's uncommon, but it does happen," Sitarz said.
Paturzo did not deny the allegations made in the complaints, including
the most recent one made by a former choirboy in a Waterbury parish.
Instead, he spoke of an "immature" 24-year-old deacon whose "stunted"
sexual development led to inappropriate acts.
Paturzo's background focuses attention on yet another long-concealed
issue within the Catholic church — namely, how to handle priests whose
sexual and emotional immaturity makes them a potential threat to young
people.
In the most recent complaint, Paturzo is accused of sneaking the victim,
who was then 13 or 14, into his room at the rectory at Sacred Heart
Church in Waterbury. Paturzo threw the boy onto his bed and licked and
nuzzled his face while reaching for his groin, according to the victim's
complaint sent to the archdiocese.
When the victim, who asked to be identified only by his first name,
Robert, resisted, Paturzo seemed confused and told the boy to relax,
saying they could have fun wrestling and playing, according to the
victim's complaint.
In several letters to the Hartford archdiocese, Robert said he felt
ashamed for waiting almost 30 years to bring the allegations to light,
but felt compelled to act in the midst of the ongoing national church
sexual abuse scandal.
Robert has also asked the church to consider offering the monetary
settlement for the damages allegedly caused by Paturzo. He said he has
managed to live a productive life despite the trauma of his alleged
encounter with "Deacon Louie," as he calls Paturzo in his letters.
"The way I was raised as an Irish Catholic, this was a priest. You never
said anything against a priest," Robert said. "I feel if I had done
something, maybe I could have saved some [other] kids."
Sitarz said Hartford Archbishop Daniel Cronin, who earlier this week
agreed to notify state authorities of all sexual abuse allegations
against priests, has not decided what action to take if the allegations
against Paturzo are confirmed.
"The sad fact is that he's been doing great work," Sitarz said, echoing
comments by other city officials and community activists. "But if our
policy says ABC has to happen, it will happen."
Robert's complaint came nine years after a similar complaint was lodged
against Paturzo, this one in the form of an anonymous letter sent by a
woman who saw the priest on the TV news. The woman, who did not identify
herself, was alarmed to see that state police were donating a van to
support Paturzo's Hartford youth initiatives. She accused the priest of
fondling her son in the 1970s while he was assigned to a church in
Hamden, according to three law enforcement sources.
State police made inquiries about the letter to Paturzo and the
archdiocese, but no further action was taken because the victim could
not be identified, sources said.
But the archdiocese took action anyway, sending Paturzo to the Institute
of Living in Hartford for short outpatient treatment and an
out-of-state institution for five months of inpatient treatment. Stan
Wasilewski, a retired Hartford police officer who served on the
department's gang task force, said he called the archdiocese after
learning of the state police investigation. Wasilewski, who like many of
his colleagues on the task force were suspicious of Paturzo's
relationships with gang members, said he asked them to remove Paturzo
from Hartford.
"This is a guy who should not be working with teenagers, period. The
archdiocese and the school district should never have let him take this
position. It's outrageous."
In the same time period, Paturzo was transferred to a new church. When
Wasilewski learned Paturzo was back in Hartford about a year later,
Wasilewski said he called the archdiocese to complain again but was told
Paturzo was fit to remain in the city ministry.
Jacqueline Hardy, a Hartford public school spokeswoman, said the district reluctantly accepted Paturzo's resignation Friday.
"It's really a tragedy because of all the tremendous things he has
accomplished and contributed to the young people of this city," she
said, adding that counselors will be on hand to talk about the priest's
resignation when students return to school Monday. "Everyone is really
upset. These allegations are really a surprise."
Hardy said the district conducted a thorough background check on Paturzo
when he was hired to work at Quirk three years ago. The priest was
asked to take the job by school officials who thought he would be ideal
for addressing issues of violence and anger management under a federal
grant, working out of Quirk's Student and Family Assistance Center. He
was brought in to deal with those issues after the school shootings at
Columbine High School in Colorado.
Paturzo also works part time as a prison chaplain at three correctional
centers for adults in Connecticut while participating in many Hartford
community improvement agencies such as the city drug and alcohol
commission.
In separate interviews, the downcast, unassuming Paturzo confessed that
much of the good work he has done in his 21 years in Hartford has been
done with an impulse to right the wrongs of his past.
In the dead of night, "Father Lou," as the Hartford kids call him, was
known to leave his apartment to go to the home of a poor Hartford family
whose son has been killed in a gang fight. Many times, Paturzo has
presided over funerals of young men cut down in the city's relentless
and merciless turf wars.
And throughout, whenever Paturzo won yet another accolade for his
commitment to the city's youth, he said he often thought of the boys
whose lives were damaged by the "boundaries" he crossed all those years
ago.
At times, he said, he felt confident that his hard work and devotion to the community had earned him redemption.
"I can say with a clear conscience that in 21 years in Hartford there
has never been a kid who could say I behaved immorally or
inappropriately toward them," he said. "I'm not the same priest who came
to Hartford 21 years ago. I've grown up."
But in recent weeks, he said he has observed with dread the black cloud
that now hangs over his church. He has seen the televised images of
priests such as John Geoghan of Boston being dragged into court on
charges of sexually abusing young boys.
Now Paturzo said he fears the revelations of his past will destroy not
only his prospects for continuing to work in the city, but also the
fragile relationships he has forged with many vulnerable young people
and their families.
"If this was just about me, I'd have no problem letting the secrets out
because they've been with me so long, it would be like a relief," he
said. "But there are a lot of kids out there who rely on me and trust
me. I worry about the damage this will cause."
