PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer
By Craig R. McCoy, Nancy Phillips and Mark Fazlollah
Inquirer Staff Writers
For decades, as dozens of priests preyed on children throughout the Philadelphia Archdiocese, there was only silence.
For the victims, the consequences of this long embrace of secrecy were devastating - and, despite a series of church reforms, linger even now.
In at least four instances, an Inquirer review shows, church leaders quietly reassigned accused child abusers, who went on to victimize again - a pattern repeated in parishes all over the country.
"I was disgusted," said a former altar boy in Delaware County, who says he was abused by one of the alleged repeat offenders, the Rev. Joseph Gausch. "It was just too hideous to think that the church knew."