‘Our trust in our faith was blind’
Priest abuse survivor speaks out
It was a sighting of the priest allegedly driving a teenage boy alone in his car that prompted a church official to report Rev. Jaime MarinCardona.
The report led to an investigation and MarinCardona being placed on leave from the church while the state Department of Children and Families and the Danbury police examine the abuse allegations.
Being alone in a car with a minor violates one of the many policies in the Diocese of Bridgeport’s Safe Environment Handbook. If this policy existed in 1969, it may have helped Monroe resident Peggy Fry.
Fry, now 69, grew up in Trumbull as part of a devout Catholic family with five children. The family volunteered at St. Theresa’s in Trumbull, laundering altar linens and counting collection money. Fry was also part of the Catholic Youth Organization.
“Our trust in our faith was
blind,” Fry said. “We believed if we did everything we could for our church, we were paving our road to heaven.”
Through the CYO group, Fry met the priest who she says sexually abused her for about a year when she was 16. Fry said he treated the youths to movies and ice cream and took her home last so they can be alone in his car. On ski trips, Fry said he isolated her by insisting to the other chaperones that he needed her to make seating charts for dinnertime. He gained the trust of Fry’s family by going to dinner at their house.
Today, none of this would be allowed. Previous allegations of abuse have led the church to implement “strict” policies that helped quickly flag MarinCardona’s alleged behavior, said Brian Wallace, spokesman for the Diocese of Bridgeport. The diocese’s Safe Environment Initiative applies to all employees, including contract workers, and volunteers in Fairfield County, and calls for awareness training sessions, background checks and a sexual misconduct policy.
“It’s a difficult story, but the reality is our programs did work,” Wallace said. “We were able to detect this early, act on it immediately.”
One policy requires two adults to be in the car with a minor — a rule MarinCardona is accused of violating, Wallace said. The policies cover everything from inappropriate touching, how to communicate with minors and restrictions on being alone with a child.
All volunteers and employees for the Diocese of Bridgeport are made aware of the policies and risk factors of sexual abuse through a threehour training called VIRTUS, Protecting God’s Children. The training and background checks are done every five years for clergy and adults who work with children. Volunteers go through the same training at least every 10 years. Mandatory reporting guidelines are also in place.
VIRTUS was created by the National Catholic Risk Retention Group and 100,000 people have taken the training since 2003. The training is required for anyone wanting to be involved in Bridgeport diocesan churches. The course includes two videos, one on sexual abuse and its effects and one on the policies to prevent it.
While the program was made by the church, the focus is not limited to abuse by priests.
“It’s looking at trust and respected members of the community in general,” Safe Environment Program Assistant Diane Scott said. “What I try to emphasize is they’re all very sick individuals . ... Child sexual abuse has no faith. … An adult should have these same boundaries with any child. It doesn’t matter your location or occupation.”