PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer
By Emilie Lounsberry and Mark Fazlollah
Inquirer Staff Writers
They found horrors to fit all kinds of charges - rape, indecent assault, endangering the welfare of children. For church leaders, they mulled obstruction of justice.
But at every turn, prosecutors who investigated sexual abuse by priests in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia said they were stymied - and frustrated - by limitations in Pennsylvania law.
The three-year investigation yielded a fiercely critical report but no new charges, an outcome that District Attorney Lynne M. Abraham called a "travesty of justice."
"I am a servant of the law, and we do only what the law permits us," she said at a news conference.
"Had the law allowed us to arrest or charge or indict people, we would have done so."
The decision came after months and months of debate among prosecutors about how to proceed. Archdiocesan lawyers fought hard at every juncture of the grand jury inquiry - especially as Cardinal Anthony J. Bevilacqua, then the archbishop of Philadelphia, was called to testify 10 times.