PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Daily News
By WILLIAM BUNCH & CATHERINE LUCEY
bunchw@phillynews.com
THEY'RE STILL very, very sorry, and they'll try to make sure it won't happen again.
But they still insist the grand jury report about child sexual abuse by Philadelphia priests was unfair. Meanwhile, they're going to try to make sure that no gays become priests.
On the Second Day of damage control, Roman Catholic leaders in Philadelphia and in Rome moved across those three broad fronts to quiet the uproar over priest sexual abuse - including the scathing, lurid report by a local grand jury.
The panel was convened by District Attorney Lynne Abraham and probed the Philadelphia Archdiocese for three years. It said on Wednesday that at least 63 local priests had abused hundreds of children over the last four decades or so - and that top church officials had covered it up.
Yesterday, archdiocesan officials and Abraham's office continued to trade volleys, while outside experts wondered what - if anything - the archdiocese could do to restore its reputation.
Although much information about Philadelphia-area abusive priests has dribbled out since 2002, the grand jury's report added some shocking details. They included reports of one priest who raped an 11-year-old girl and took her to get an abortion, and of another who molested a teenage car-crash victim while she was in traction.