Brewster
2018-08-15 01:12:58 UTC
Updated at 4:33 p.m. ET
A long-awaited grand jury investigation into clergy sexual abuse in
Pennsylvania was released Tuesday in an interim redacted form. The
report detailed decades of alleged misconduct and cover-ups in six of
the state's eight Roman Catholic dioceses.
The roughly 900-page report, not including exhibits, is thought to be
the most comprehensive of its kind and paints a horrid portrait of
activity that occurred in the dioceses of Scranton, Allentown,
Harrisburg, Greensburg, Erie and Pittsburgh, implicating 300 "predator
priests" statewide who committed "criminal and/or morally
reprehensible conduct."
One priest in the Diocese of Harrisburg abused five sisters in a
single family. Another, in the Diocese of Greensburg, impregnated a
17-year-old girl, married her, then divorced her months later.
A priest in the Diocese of Erie admitted to assaulting at least a
dozen boys, yet was later thanked by the bishop for "all that you have
done for God's people."
The grand jury said it reviewed a half-million pages of internal
church documents and "secret archives" that were readily available to
bishops. It found credible allegations by more than 1,000 victims,
adding, "We believe that the real number ... is in the thousands."
The findings revealed a pattern of abuse that occurred in hundreds of
parishes in 54 of Pennsylvania's 67 counties going back at least 80
years. It detailed how fellow clergy members conducted shoddy
investigations into sexual abuse allegations and how bishops often
sided with abusive priests.
"The pattern was abuse, deny and cover up," said Attorney General Josh
Shapiro at a press conference in Harrisburg on Tuesday. He described a
"systematic cover-up" and a "failure of law enforcement."
The at-times scathing report also faulted the church leaders'
inaction.
"Despite some institutional reform, individual leaders of the church
have largely escaped public accountability. Priests were raping little
boys and girls, and the men of God who were responsible for them not
only did nothing; they hid it all. For decades. Monsignors, auxiliary
bishops, bishops, archbishops, cardinals have mostly been protected;
many, including some named in this report, have been promoted. Until
that changes, we think it is too early to close the book on the
Catholic Church sex scandal."
The report counted 41 "predator priests" in the Diocese of Erie, 37 in
Allentown, 20 in Greensburg, 45 in Harrisburg, 99 in Pittsburgh, and
59 in Scranton.
Abuse in the Philadelphia and Altoona-Johnstown dioceses have been
covered in previous reports.
The interim report was released just before the 2 p.m. deadline the
state Supreme Court gave its appointed special master to sort out
disputes regarding the redactions.
A majority of the activity described within the scathing investigation
falls outside of Pennsylvania's statute of limitations for sexual
crimes, and those clergy members both named and currently blacked out
of the report are not expected to face criminal charges.
But the grand jury issued presentments against a priest in the
Greensburg Diocese and a priest in the Erie Diocese, who it said had
sexually assaulted children within the past decade.
In the wake of Shapiro's press conference, several of the diocese
released statements.
"Sadly, abuse still is part of the society in which we live. We
acknowledge our past failures, and we are determined to do what is
necessary to protect the innocent, now and in the future," wrote
Allentown Diocese Bishop Alfred A. Schlert.
Named prominently in the report is Cardinal Donald Wuerl, the
archbishop of Washington, D.C., who served as the bishop of Pittsburgh
from 1988 through 2006.
The grand jury found that Wuerl allegedly shuffled around abusive
priests and failed to inform church officials in other states of
priests who were moved there after facing sexual abuse allegations in
the Pittsburgh Diocese.
In a letter to priests late Monday, Wuerl said he acted to protect
children after learning about allegations of sexual abuse.
"It moved me not simply to address these acts, but to be fully
engaged, to meet with survivors and their families, and to do what I
could to bring them comfort and try to begin a process for healing,"
Wuerl wrote, claiming he imposed a "zero tolerance" policy for clergy
sex abuse.
When Wuerl came to Pittsburgh, he replaced then-Bishop Anthony
Bevilacqua, who went on to become Archbishop of Philadelphia, where a
grand jury found he had protected abusive priests. Bevilacqua died in
2012.
What's next?
The grand jury made a list of recommendations, including eliminating
the statute of limitations for child sexual abuse. It also called for
a "civil window" law, which would give victims a two-year period to
file civil charges retroactively.
"We saw these victims; they are marked for life. Many of them wind up
addicted, or impaired, or dead before their time," wrote the grand
jury.
We saw these victims; they are marked for life. Many of them wind up
addicted, or impaired, or dead before their time.
Report from the 40th Statewide Investigating Grand Jury.
In Pennsylvania, a victim of child sex abuse who turned 18 after Aug.
27, 2002, has until age 50 to file criminal charges. Those who turned
18 before that date cannot bring a criminal case. For civil charges,
child victims have until their 30th birthday to file, no matter when
the abuse occurred.
Advocates for victims have long pushed to amend these statutes. They
want to raise the age for civil filings and to abolish limitations on
criminal charges, likening sexual abuse to murder.
They've also called for "window" legislation that would give victims a
brief period to file civil charges retroactively.
Facing stiff opposition from groups such as the Pennsylvania Catholic
Conference, pieces of legislation advancing such measures haven't
found consensus.
Long legal battle
The 40th Statewide Investigating Grand Jury was convened in 2016 in an
investigation led by the Pennsylvania attorney general. Tuesday's
redacted report came after months of legal battles challenging its
release.
It was initially slated for public view at the end of June but was
delayed after a group of unnamed current and former clergy filed
objections claiming that publishing the report would violate their due
process rights.
Attorneys for the clergy said the state should not be able to name or
implicate individuals without charging them with a crime or allowing
them to challenge evidence and cross-examine witnesses. As is typical
in grand jury proceedings, the clergy members had been invited to file
a written response to the report.
In response to objections from clergy, the state Supreme Court stayed
the report's release to allow more time for appeals.
Nine news outlets including NPR member station WHYY, the lead
station of Keystone Crossroads and the state attorney general's
office then pushed to make the report public, even if only in a
redacted form.
Shapiro called the clergy's appeals a "desperate attempt to stop the
public from learning the truth about their abhorrent conduct" and said
he opposes giving clergy the option to essentially rewrite the report
"in accordance with their preferred view of the facts."
Norman Krumenacker III, the Cambria County judge who presided over the
grand jury investigation, also disagreed with the clergy and pushed
for an unredacted report to be released.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court said Krumenacker's logic was flawed. It
argued that the state Constitution compels the court to put a high
premium on an individual's right to reputation. In a July 27 order,
the high court agreed with an alternate plan proposed by the media
intervenors and decided a version that redacted the names of the
objectors would be released by mid-August.
Hearings to decide whether the complaints by individual clergy members
are valid will be held in September in Philadelphia.
The group of unnamed challengers said even a redacted version would
violate grand jury secrecy rules, because it includes specific facts
from the report and "would impermissibly lift the cloak of anonymity
they have been afforded."
The legal battle has sparked a debate over Pennsylvania's use of grand
jury proceedings, in which 23 jurors meet in private to sort through
potential evidence on complicated crimes or issues of public
importance.
Prosecutors say such proceedings can help develop particularly
difficult cases and bring to light issues that would otherwise remain
hidden. Critics say the process should not be used to identify and
criticize individuals who haven't been charged with crimes.
https://apps.npr.org/documents/document.html?id=4757023-InterimRedactedReportandResponses
https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/4757023/InterimRedactedReportandResponses.pdf
https://www.npr.org/2018/08/14/636855561/report-reveals-widespread-sexual-abuse-by-over-300-priests-in-pa
A long-awaited grand jury investigation into clergy sexual abuse in
Pennsylvania was released Tuesday in an interim redacted form. The
report detailed decades of alleged misconduct and cover-ups in six of
the state's eight Roman Catholic dioceses.
The roughly 900-page report, not including exhibits, is thought to be
the most comprehensive of its kind and paints a horrid portrait of
activity that occurred in the dioceses of Scranton, Allentown,
Harrisburg, Greensburg, Erie and Pittsburgh, implicating 300 "predator
priests" statewide who committed "criminal and/or morally
reprehensible conduct."
One priest in the Diocese of Harrisburg abused five sisters in a
single family. Another, in the Diocese of Greensburg, impregnated a
17-year-old girl, married her, then divorced her months later.
A priest in the Diocese of Erie admitted to assaulting at least a
dozen boys, yet was later thanked by the bishop for "all that you have
done for God's people."
The grand jury said it reviewed a half-million pages of internal
church documents and "secret archives" that were readily available to
bishops. It found credible allegations by more than 1,000 victims,
adding, "We believe that the real number ... is in the thousands."
The findings revealed a pattern of abuse that occurred in hundreds of
parishes in 54 of Pennsylvania's 67 counties going back at least 80
years. It detailed how fellow clergy members conducted shoddy
investigations into sexual abuse allegations and how bishops often
sided with abusive priests.
"The pattern was abuse, deny and cover up," said Attorney General Josh
Shapiro at a press conference in Harrisburg on Tuesday. He described a
"systematic cover-up" and a "failure of law enforcement."
The at-times scathing report also faulted the church leaders'
inaction.
"Despite some institutional reform, individual leaders of the church
have largely escaped public accountability. Priests were raping little
boys and girls, and the men of God who were responsible for them not
only did nothing; they hid it all. For decades. Monsignors, auxiliary
bishops, bishops, archbishops, cardinals have mostly been protected;
many, including some named in this report, have been promoted. Until
that changes, we think it is too early to close the book on the
Catholic Church sex scandal."
The report counted 41 "predator priests" in the Diocese of Erie, 37 in
Allentown, 20 in Greensburg, 45 in Harrisburg, 99 in Pittsburgh, and
59 in Scranton.
Abuse in the Philadelphia and Altoona-Johnstown dioceses have been
covered in previous reports.
The interim report was released just before the 2 p.m. deadline the
state Supreme Court gave its appointed special master to sort out
disputes regarding the redactions.
A majority of the activity described within the scathing investigation
falls outside of Pennsylvania's statute of limitations for sexual
crimes, and those clergy members both named and currently blacked out
of the report are not expected to face criminal charges.
But the grand jury issued presentments against a priest in the
Greensburg Diocese and a priest in the Erie Diocese, who it said had
sexually assaulted children within the past decade.
In the wake of Shapiro's press conference, several of the diocese
released statements.
"Sadly, abuse still is part of the society in which we live. We
acknowledge our past failures, and we are determined to do what is
necessary to protect the innocent, now and in the future," wrote
Allentown Diocese Bishop Alfred A. Schlert.
Named prominently in the report is Cardinal Donald Wuerl, the
archbishop of Washington, D.C., who served as the bishop of Pittsburgh
from 1988 through 2006.
The grand jury found that Wuerl allegedly shuffled around abusive
priests and failed to inform church officials in other states of
priests who were moved there after facing sexual abuse allegations in
the Pittsburgh Diocese.
In a letter to priests late Monday, Wuerl said he acted to protect
children after learning about allegations of sexual abuse.
"It moved me not simply to address these acts, but to be fully
engaged, to meet with survivors and their families, and to do what I
could to bring them comfort and try to begin a process for healing,"
Wuerl wrote, claiming he imposed a "zero tolerance" policy for clergy
sex abuse.
When Wuerl came to Pittsburgh, he replaced then-Bishop Anthony
Bevilacqua, who went on to become Archbishop of Philadelphia, where a
grand jury found he had protected abusive priests. Bevilacqua died in
2012.
What's next?
The grand jury made a list of recommendations, including eliminating
the statute of limitations for child sexual abuse. It also called for
a "civil window" law, which would give victims a two-year period to
file civil charges retroactively.
"We saw these victims; they are marked for life. Many of them wind up
addicted, or impaired, or dead before their time," wrote the grand
jury.
We saw these victims; they are marked for life. Many of them wind up
addicted, or impaired, or dead before their time.
Report from the 40th Statewide Investigating Grand Jury.
In Pennsylvania, a victim of child sex abuse who turned 18 after Aug.
27, 2002, has until age 50 to file criminal charges. Those who turned
18 before that date cannot bring a criminal case. For civil charges,
child victims have until their 30th birthday to file, no matter when
the abuse occurred.
Advocates for victims have long pushed to amend these statutes. They
want to raise the age for civil filings and to abolish limitations on
criminal charges, likening sexual abuse to murder.
They've also called for "window" legislation that would give victims a
brief period to file civil charges retroactively.
Facing stiff opposition from groups such as the Pennsylvania Catholic
Conference, pieces of legislation advancing such measures haven't
found consensus.
Long legal battle
The 40th Statewide Investigating Grand Jury was convened in 2016 in an
investigation led by the Pennsylvania attorney general. Tuesday's
redacted report came after months of legal battles challenging its
release.
It was initially slated for public view at the end of June but was
delayed after a group of unnamed current and former clergy filed
objections claiming that publishing the report would violate their due
process rights.
Attorneys for the clergy said the state should not be able to name or
implicate individuals without charging them with a crime or allowing
them to challenge evidence and cross-examine witnesses. As is typical
in grand jury proceedings, the clergy members had been invited to file
a written response to the report.
In response to objections from clergy, the state Supreme Court stayed
the report's release to allow more time for appeals.
Nine news outlets including NPR member station WHYY, the lead
station of Keystone Crossroads and the state attorney general's
office then pushed to make the report public, even if only in a
redacted form.
Shapiro called the clergy's appeals a "desperate attempt to stop the
public from learning the truth about their abhorrent conduct" and said
he opposes giving clergy the option to essentially rewrite the report
"in accordance with their preferred view of the facts."
Norman Krumenacker III, the Cambria County judge who presided over the
grand jury investigation, also disagreed with the clergy and pushed
for an unredacted report to be released.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court said Krumenacker's logic was flawed. It
argued that the state Constitution compels the court to put a high
premium on an individual's right to reputation. In a July 27 order,
the high court agreed with an alternate plan proposed by the media
intervenors and decided a version that redacted the names of the
objectors would be released by mid-August.
Hearings to decide whether the complaints by individual clergy members
are valid will be held in September in Philadelphia.
The group of unnamed challengers said even a redacted version would
violate grand jury secrecy rules, because it includes specific facts
from the report and "would impermissibly lift the cloak of anonymity
they have been afforded."
The legal battle has sparked a debate over Pennsylvania's use of grand
jury proceedings, in which 23 jurors meet in private to sort through
potential evidence on complicated crimes or issues of public
importance.
Prosecutors say such proceedings can help develop particularly
difficult cases and bring to light issues that would otherwise remain
hidden. Critics say the process should not be used to identify and
criticize individuals who haven't been charged with crimes.
https://apps.npr.org/documents/document.html?id=4757023-InterimRedactedReportandResponses
https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/4757023/InterimRedactedReportandResponses.pdf
https://www.npr.org/2018/08/14/636855561/report-reveals-widespread-sexual-abuse-by-over-300-priests-in-pa