PHILADELPHIA (PA)
phillyburbs.com
By JANICE PODSADA
The Associated Press
PHILADELPHIA - Tucked inside every parish bulletin in every church in the Philadelphia archdiocese on Sunday was a two-page letter from Cardinal Justin Rigali.
In it, he acknowledged the "pain and suffering" of those who had been abused by priests, but he also lashed out at a grand jury report that he said unjustly criticized his predecessors - Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua, Cardinal John Krol - and other members of the archdiocese.
Rigali wasn't the only one distributing a letter related to the grand jury report released Wednesday, which documented 63 cases of child sexual abuse perpetrated by priests in the archdiocese.
Members of the Philadelphia chapter of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests and Other Clergy, known as SNAP, also distributed a letter to worshippers at several Philadelphia churches. That letter urged anyone who was sexually abused by a member of the clergy to call the district attorney's office or SNAP.