ALLENTOWN (PA)
The Morning Call
By Dan Sheehan, Matt Assad
and Joe McDermott Of The Morning Call
The portrayal of Allentown Bishop Edward P. Cullen in a Philadelphia grand jury's scathing report on the clergy sex abuse scandal details episodes of bureaucratic blindness and inexplicable leniency during his tenure as a top administrator in the Philadelphia Archdiocese.
The Cullen of those days stands in sharp contrast to the efficient, zero-tolerance prelate who allowed unfettered scrutiny by the five district attorneys in the Allentown Diocese after the scandal erupted nationally in 2002.
In one section of the 423-page report, Cullen, who was the chief aide to retired Philadelphia Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua, laments that abusive priests are able to escape prosecution because too much time has passed. ''I think it would be good for society if they had no statute of limitations,'' he told the grand jury, which spent three years examining the archdiocese's handling of abuse cases.