PENNSYLVANIA
Philly.com
Updated: MARCH 14, 2016
“I have greatly sinned … in what I have done and in what I have failed to do.”
– From the Confiteor, a prayer said during the Penitential Act during a Roman Catholic Mass
By Thomas P. Murt
In Western Pennsylvania, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown knowingly protected priests who were known child molesters, according to a grand jury report. The diocese, the report continued, through church connections and pathetic public officials, protected the child-molesting priests from law enforcement and prosecution.
Perhaps the worst crime that officials committed is never taking subsequent action to protect children from these child-molesting priests. In the diocese, when a priest was found to have sexually abused a child, the normal protocol was to simply move him to another parish, offer a cash payment to the family, and/or to send the child-molesting priest on retreat, only to have him returned to ministry in the future.
The grand jury report of child sexual abuse in the diocese is even more graphic, sickening, and disgusting than the grand jury report on the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. If you have the stomach for it, you can find it on the Internet. The link will caution you about the graphic nature of the material.
Make no mistake, as ugly and painful as the latest sex abuse scandal is, this is not the last one we will hear about. While many victims are finding the strength to come forward, no doubt there are thousands of others who are still hiding in shame and humiliation. The true shame and humiliation, however, is not theirs at all. That belongs to Pennsylvania’s legislators, who still collectively refuse to take action to reform the statute of limitations as it relates to child sex abuse.
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