PENNSYLVANIA
National Catholic Reporter
Brian Roewe | Mar. 2, 2016
A statewide grand jury report released Tuesday by the Pennsylvania attorney general revealed a blistering sketch of at least six decades of persistent and concealed sexual abuse of hundreds of children by at least 50 priests and religious leaders assigned to the Altoona-Johnstown diocese.
Beyond the purported crimes, the report outlined how several bishop-enablers took conscious steps to stifle victims and advocates in reporting and to move the priests — at times unimpeded by local law authorities aware of allegations.
“The Grand Jury concludes the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown was a location rampant with child molestation for decades,” the report stated. “That widespread abuse of children was assisted by priests and Bishops who covered up the abuse rather than properly report it.”
The 147-page grand jury report chronicles a history of abuse in the south-central Pennsylvania diocese that extended from 1940 through 2009. It comes as the third such major probe into the issue of clergy sexual abuse in Pennsylvania, following grand jury reports in 2005 and 2011 examining the Philadelphia archdiocese.
“This is a finding of fact and an effort at transparency — not to slander a religion but to expose the truth about the men who hijacked it for their own grotesque desires,” the grand jury said.
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