PENNSYLVANIA
PennLive
By Colin Deppen | cdeppen@pennlive.com
ALTOONA — Confronted with revelations of widespread child abuse by clergy in the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese, church members and residents in this community, described as staunchly religious by some, reacted with shock and disgust, as well as silence and disbelief on Tuesday.
One couple, asked by a PennLive reporter for their reaction to a damning grand jury report released on the matter that morning, said, simply, “We don’t want to talk about that” before hurrying off toward their car located across a downtown Altoona parking lot.
At the St. John’s Catholic School on Lotz Avenue in the city, a man who answered the door declined comment saying, “we’re tight lipped about it.”
Others were more forthcoming in describing a deep-seated internal conflict involving their affiliation with the church and moral aversion to the acts reportedly committed by some of its leaders. Those acts, according to the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General which announced the findings of its grand jury investigation on Tuesday, included hundreds of child victims abused by as many as 50 diocesan priests over a period of 40 years.
Pat Rickabaugh, a practicing Catholic from Altoona, said she was “glad” the abuse had been exposed, adding “Those children suffered enough just to have to talk about it.”
Rickabaugh also chided law enforcement for not acting sooner.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.