PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Boston Globe
By David O'Reilly and Nancy Phillips, Knight Ridder | September 22, 2005
PHILADELPHIA --A grand jury issued a scathing critique yesterday of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, saying its former archbishops and other leaders concealed and facilitated clergy sex abuse of children for decades.
The grand jury, which investigated the archdiocese for more than three years, concluded that at least 63 priests -- and probably many more -- sexually abused hundreds of minors over the past several decades.
But even more disturbing, the jurors found, was the coverup by the two previous archbishops, Cardinals John Krol and Anthony J. Bevilacqua who, they concluded, ''excused and enabled the abuse" and put legal and financial interests and moral reputation of the archdiocese ahead of protecting the children entrusted to its care.
''Those choices went all the way to the top -- to Cardinal Bevilacqua and Cardinal Krol personally," the report states.
''The behavior of Archdiocese officials was perhaps not so lurid as that of the individual priest sex abusers. But in its callous, calculating manner, the Archdiocese's 'handling' of the abuse scandal was at least as immoral as the abuse itself."