PENNSYLVANIA
The Morning Call
Steve Esack
Call Harrisburg Bureau
Pittsburgh grand jury looking at child sex abuse allegation from churches across state
HARRISBURG — Four more Catholic dioceses — Erie, Greensburg, Pittsburgh and Scranton — have been swept into a grand jury investigation of clergy sex abuse and cover-up allegations in communities stretching from the Delaware River to the Monongahela.
On Friday, officials in the Erie, Scranton and Greensburg dioceses confirmed they received subpoenas from the Pennsylvania attorney general’s office. Their confirmations come a day after the Harrisburg Diocese told the newspaper that it, too, had gotten a subpoena.
The Allentown Diocese also is part of the grand jury probe, according to a state lawmaker who testified before the grand jury in Pittsburgh. Allentown diocesan officials have declined to comment on the probe.
State prosecutors have been taking testimony in Pittsburgh for months in a wide-ranging investigation that started with a scathing March report detailing allegations of abuse by about 50 priests and other religious leaders in the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese and a coverup by church officials.
Six of the state’s eight Catholic dioceses have gotten subpoenas. The subpoenas — seeking personnel files and testimony from church officials — were sent to the Allentown, Erie, Greensburg, Harrisburg, Pittsburgh and Scranton dioceses, The Morning Call has learned.
The Greensburg Diocese in southwestern Pennsylvania “received a subpoena from the statewide investigative grand jury,” spokesman Jerry Zufelt said in a statement. “The diocese is cooperating, and will continue to cooperate, with law enforcement officials in this matter. The Diocese of Greensburg takes the protection of all children and young people seriously. Names and facts of any allegation of misconduct will continue to be reported immediately to the proper civil authorities.”
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