UPDATED: Hundreds of accused priests listed in Pennsylvania report on Catholic Church sex abuse
Last edited Tue Aug 14, 2018, 02:50 PM - Edit history (1)
Source: Washington Post
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Tuesday released a sweeping grand jury report on sex abuse in the Catholic Church, listing more than 300 accused clergy and detailing a systematic coverup effort by church leaders over 70 years. State Attorney General Josh Shapiro said at a news conference Tuesday that more than 1,000 child victims were identified in the report, but the grand jury believes there are more.
The release is the culmination of an 18-month probe, led Shapiro, on six of the states eight dioceses Harrisburg, Pittsburgh, Allentown, Scranton, Erie and Greensburg and follows other state grand jury reports that revealed abuse and coverups in two other dioceses. Shapiro said that the report details a systematic coverup by senior church officials in Pennsylvania and at the Vatican.
(Read the grand jury report)
The nearly 1,400-page reports introduction makes clear that few criminal cases may result from the massive investigation.
As a consequence of the coverup, almost every instance of abuse we found is too old to be prosecuted, it reads.We subpoenaed, and reviewed, half a million pages of internal diocesan documents. They contained credible allegations against over three hundred predator priests. Over one thousand child victims were identifiable, from the churchs own records. We believe that the real number of children whose records were lost, or who were afraid ever to come forward is in the thousands.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2018/08/14/pennsylvania-grand-jury-report-on-sex-abuse-in-catholic-church-will-list-hundreds-of-accused-predator-priests/?utm_term=.f9058ccdeae3
Original story -
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Tuesday released a sweeping grand jury report on sex abuse in the Catholic Church, listing hundreds of accused clergy and detailing 70 years of misconduct and church response across the state.
The release is the culmination of an 18-month probe, led by state Attorney General Josh Shapiro, on six of the states eight dioceses Harrisburg, Pittsburgh, Allentown, Scranton, Erie and Greensburg and follows other state grand jury reports that revealed abuse and coverups in two other dioceses.
Some details and names that might reveal the 300 clergy listed have been redacted from the report. Legal challenges by clergy delayed the reports release, after some said it is a violation of their constitutional rights. Pennsylvanias Supreme Court ruled last month that the report must be released but with some redaction.
The reports release begins an information war, with prosecutors and many victims saying its the start of holding church leaders at the top accountable for the first time, while church lawyers and other advocates for the institution say the report depicts an era of another century, unfairly smearing todays Catholicism in Pennsylvania.
Solly Mack
(90,767 posts)Snort.
Attempting to portray the abuse as happening a long, long time ago and that now, in this century and in this new era, the abuse has somehow stopped. That victims and their stories - from that long ago era and last century - were just so long ago as to not be relevant to today's church. That the guilty and the complicit are no longer in place.
hibbing
(10,098 posts)csziggy
(34,136 posts)Years before when I read it. It is clear that it is more than 70 years of crimes against children and coverup by the church.
This needs to be treated as a current ongoing crime. The Catholic Church has never admitted that their cover-up of these crimes were an official church policy. They have never admitted that they continuously intimidate families into keeping silent and move priests around to hide their crimes.
Until charges are brought to the people in charge - the Church hierarchy - it will not stop.
olegramps
(8,200 posts)Initech
(100,076 posts)This country might be better off. But the keyword there is "might".
appalachiablue
(41,132 posts)keithbvadu2
(36,806 posts)Catholic Church protecting pederast priests is not even news anymore... just more details.
It's already known that the CC has been protected and abetting these child molesters for many decades and moving them around to prey on more children.
It goes all the way up to the Vatican.
YOHABLO
(7,358 posts)AlexSFCA
(6,137 posts)Its beyond disgusting. First amendment does not allow this. Lets hope this enterprise is driven into bancruptcy by massive lawsuits. But Id rather see them behind bars and declare the organization illegal in the US. Absolutely infuriating. I hope parents take notice and stop bringing their children anywhere bear this child rapist criminal institution; this is cleary child endangerment.
BumRushDaShow
(128,979 posts)You might recall what happened with the Los Angeles Diocese and a $660 million settlement for their abuse issues.
Settlement represents Churchs largest payout in sexual abuse scandal
AP Associated Press
updated 7/14/2007 11:47:25 PM ET
<...>
The settlement is the largest ever by a Roman Catholic diocese since the clergy sexual abuse scandal erupted in Boston in 2002. The largest payout so far has been by the Diocese of Orange, Calif., in 2004, for $100 million.
Facing a flood of abuse claims, five dioceses Tucson, Ariz.; Spokane, Wash.; Portland, Ore.; Davenport, Iowa, and San Diego sought bankruptcy protection.
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/19762878/ns/us_news-life/t/la-archdiocese-settle-suits-million/
Other settlements over the years included Chicago, Minneapolis/St. Paul, NYC, Buffalo, Great Falls/Billings, MT, Duluth, MN, and others...
The arc of the moral universe is long...
llmart
(15,539 posts)have never come forward with their stories? How many of them have buried the incidents so deeply that they doubt themselves that they never happened? How many of them have been so damaged that they could not live normal lives as adults?
I remember Oprah doing a show on men who had been abused by priests and it was heart wrenching.