PENNSYLVANIA
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
By Peter Smith / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
In the wake of a grand jury report citing decades of sexual abuse by priests in the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown, Bishop Mark Bartchak plans three prayer services this week aimed at seeking healing for the victims.
The bishop is inviting people to join “in prayer for those who have been harmed.”
One advocacy group for victims is not impressed.
“Such services are nothing more than public relations,” said a statement by the group Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, a nationwide advocacy group. “They don’t protect a single child, expose a single predator, punish a single concealer or deter a single cover-up.”
It said Bishop Bartchak should replace the diocesan review board that is set up to make recommendations on handling abuse allegations and that, according to the grand jury, instead managed victims as a way to contain liability for the diocese. A priest who advises the board pleaded the Fifth Amendment right not to testify when subpoenaed to testify before the grand jury.
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