PENNSYLVANIA
York Daily Record
Brandie Kessler, bkessler@ydr.com
September 20, 2016
State Rep. Mark Rozzi said he believes the high volume of reports of clergy abuse to the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s office spurred a statewide grand jury investigation into six Catholic dioceses, including Harrisburg.
“After the Altoona-Johnstown (diocese grand jury report) came out, and the Attorney General put out the hotline, and they took so many hundreds of calls, you weren’t just having Altoona-Johnstown victims calling, you were having victims from all over the state calling,” Rozzi said.
The Harrisburg diocese, which includes York County, acknowledged being subpoenaed, and Rozzi said five others — Allentown, Erie, Greensburg, Pittsburgh and Scranton — are also being investigated.
Rozzi, of Berks County, who said he was abused by a priest in 1984, said that when he knew a grand jury had been impaneled, he started posting things on social media, like Facebook, encouraging victims of clergy sexual abuse to get their story on the record. He said he didn’t post on social media that there was a grand jury investigation, rather that he would put survivors in touch with people who could help them.
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