WILKES-BARRE — Acting Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar last week launched the third year of the Governor’s Civic Engagement Award program for high schools.

The announcement comes as September is National Voter Registration Month.

The program promotes student-led voter registration efforts at high schools and recognizes schools that register at least 65 percent of their eligible students.

“This innovative, nonpartisan program teaches young people civics and encourages them to get involved as active citizens and voters in our democratic process,” Boockvar said. “I urge educators to enroll their schools in the program as soon as possible so they can get the voter registration toolkit early and receive valuable updates throughout the school year.”

Information on the four regional recognition events for award winners — in Wilkes-Barre, Harrisburg, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia — will be posted soon on the GCEA web page so schools can plan ahead.

The GCEA program is growing in popularity and success. In its first year, 2,955 eligible students registered to vote, and 16 schools won awards. Last year, 3,109 eligible students registered to vote, 23 schools won awards and eight outstanding students earned individual recognition for working to register their peers and also serving as poll workers.

Schools that register at least 85 percent of their eligible students earn a Gold Level Award, while schools that register 65 percent or more of their eligible students earn a Silver Level Award. To be eligible to register to vote, students must be 18 years of age, or turn 18 on or before the date of the next primary, special, municipal or general election.

The program, initiated at the beginning of the 2017-18 school year, is a cooperative effort by the Departments of State and Education. It offers student leaders resources on voter registration and educates them about the electoral process and the importance of civic engagement.

“Voting is a fundamental right in our country and registering to vote is the first step students need to take to participate in this democratic process,” said Education Secretary Pedro A. Rivera. “We encourage all students 18 and older to register through this initiative so that their votes can be counted, and we applaud our students who are helping their peers learn about and act on their civic responsibilities.”

National Voter Registration Month

In 2002, the National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS) established National Voter Registration Month in September as a nonpartisan means of encouraging voter participation and increasing awareness of state voting requirements and deadlines.

National Voter Registration Day, launched in 2012 by a coalition of nonprofit and voter advocacy organizations and supported by NASS, will be held this year on Tuesday, Sept. 24.

Pennsylvanians wishing to register to vote must be:

• A citizen of the United States for at least one month before the election.

• A resident of Pennsylvania and the election district in which the individual desires to register and vote for at least 30 days before the election.

• At least 18 years of age on or before the date of the election.

Oct. 7 is Pennsylvania’s deadline to register to vote in the Nov. 5 election.

The Department of State’s votesPA.com website offers:

• A polling place locator.

• Contact information for county boards of election.

• Tips for first-time voters and members of the military.

• Video demonstrations of the voting systems in use in each county.

• A Voter Guide and the “Top 5 Things Every Voter Should Know About Pennsylvania Elections.”

For more information on voter registration, call the Department of State’s toll-free hotline at 1-877-VOTESPA (1-877-868-3772) or visit votesPA.com. Printer-friendly Pennsylvania voter education materials can be found at votesPa.com.

Wolf thanks Pennsylvania National

Guard, families at deployment ceremony

Last week, 53 Pennsylvania National Guard members assigned to Bravo Company and Delta Company, 2-104th General Support Aviation Battalion, 28th Expeditionary Combat Aviation Brigade, participated in a send-off ceremony in Annville as they prepare to mobilize for deployment to the Middle East as part of Operation Freedom’s Sentinel.

Gov. Tom Wolf and Adj. Gen. Tony Carrelli thanked the troops and their families.

“Pennsylvania is fortunate to have such dedicated men and women like those here today who are willing to greatly sacrifice while serving thousands of miles from home to preserve our liberties and freedom,” Wolf said. “The entire commonwealth is grateful for your critical role in this nation’s safety and security. We thank you and your families and will continue to support you all throughout this difficult next year.”

“The nation and commonwealth have asked much of you and your families during your service in the National Guard,” said Carrelli, who also heads the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs. “We are proud of you all and ask once again that you put family and careers aside to defend freedom for America and her allies. We are here to support your families while you are gone and anxiously wait for your safe return next year.”

The units support aviation operations that will be conducted within the Middle East. The soldiers are based out of Fort Indiantown Gap and Johnstown but come from all over the commonwealth and some even reside in neighboring states. They will first travel to Texas to prepare for movement overseas.

Operation Freedom’s Sentinel is part of the Global War on Terrorism and is the official name for the mission succeeding Operation Enduring Freedom. Terrorist groups like ISIS and Al-Qaeda still function in the OFS area of operations and remain a threat to international stability, peace and safety.

Bravo Company soldiers operate CH-47 Chinook helicopters and Delta Company soldiers provide aviation maintenance. They will work with partner units to prevent these terrorist groups from launching attacks against Americans or our allies around the world.

Founded in 1747, the Pennsylvania National Guard is the second largest National Guard in the nation and is comprised of more than 18,000 soldiers and airmen, who reside in every county across the commonwealth. The Pennsylvania National Guard is part of the DMVA’s dual mission, which also includes supporting Pennsylvania’s nearly 800,000 veterans.

For more information about the DMVA, visit us online at www.dmva.pa.gov or follow at www.facebook.com/padmva or www.twitter.com/padmva.

Critical need for high-speed

internet in health care discussed

Speaking in front of a packed room at the Monroe County Safety Center, Sally Kozak, Deputy Secretary with the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services, last week testified that broadband access is critical for the delivery of high-quality health care.

“Lack of broadband prevents health care and emergency medical service providers from delivering the best treatment possible,” Kozak said. “When it comes to medical services, providers need access to robust, reliable broadband to ensure they are able to communicate with patients and hospitals effectively, transmit and receive crucial data, and implement the latest technology.”

The Monroe County Safety Center was where a Senate Communications and Technology Committee public hearing took place on Tuesday afternoon.

The hearing, held at the request of Sen. Mario Scavello, R-Scotrun, featured experts who outlined the challenges of emergency response and health care options for local residents when high-speed internet access is nonexistent.

“In the 40th Senate District, we have made headway in several cases with getting increased broadband access to specific communities and institutions,” Scavello said. “However, we need to replicate that success across the state and make it the norm, not the exception.”

The hearing, chaired by Sen. Kristin Phillips-Hill, R-York, is the second in a series of four hearings on how lack of high-speed internet can affect various key industries in Pennsylvania.

In addition to the Department of Human Services, the hearing featured three panels, including AT&T, the Public Utility Commission, the Broadband Cable Association, Tri-County Rural Electric Cooperative, the Pennsylvania State Police, Motorola, Mansfield University on behalf of the Fund for the Northern Tier, the Department of Human Services, the Pennsylvania Medical Society and St. Luke’s University Health Network.

The committee went to Fayette County for a public hearing on Sept. 5 to review how high-speed broadband internet access impacts agriculture and education.

https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/web1_Capitol-logo.jpg Boockvar https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/web1_Acting-Secretary-of-State-Kathy-Boockvar.jpg Boockvar Wolf https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/web1_Wolf_Tom-07-24-14-cmyk.jpg Wolf Carrelli https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/web1_PA-Adjutant-General-Tony-Carrelli.jpg Carrelli Scavello https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/web1_Sen.-Mario-Scavullo.jpg Scavello

By Bill O’Boyle boboyle@timesleader.com</s>A priest raped a 7-year-old girl while he was visiting her in the hospital after she’d had her tonsils removed. Another priest forced a 9-year-old boy into having oral sex, then rinsed out the boy’s mouth with holy water. One boy was forced to say confession to the priest who sexually abused him.

Those children are among the victims of roughly 300 Roman Catholic priests in Pennsylvania who molested more than 1,000 children — and possibly many more — since the 1940s, according to a sweeping state grand jury report released Tuesday that accused senior church officials, including a man who is now the archbishop of Washington, D.C., of systematically covering up complaints.

The “real number” of abused children and abusive priests might be higher since some secret church records were lost and some victims never came forward, the grand jury said.

While the grand jury said dioceses have established internal processes and seem to refer complaints to law enforcement more promptly, it suggested that important changes are lacking.

“Despite some institutional reform, individual leaders of the church have largely escaped public accountability,” the grand jury wrote in the roughly 900-page report. “Priests were raping little boys and girls, and the men of God who were responsible for them not only did nothing; they hid it all.”

Top church officials have mostly been protected and many, including some named in the report, have been promoted, the grand jury said, concluding that “it is too early to close the book on the Catholic Church sex scandal.”

In nearly every case, prosecutors found that the statute of limitations has run out, meaning that criminal charges cannot be filed. More than 100 of the priests are dead. Many others are retired or have been dismissed from the priesthood or put on leave. Authorities charged just two, including a priest who has since pleaded guilty.

Attorney General Josh Shapiro said the investigation is ongoing.

The investigation of six of Pennsylvania’s eight dioceses— Allentown, Erie, Greensburg, Harrisburg, Pittsburgh and Scranton — is the most extensive investigation of Catholic clergy abuse by any state, according to victim advocates. The dioceses represent about 1.7 million Catholics.

Until now, there have been just nine investigations by a prosecutor or grand jury of a Catholic diocese or archdiocese in the United States, according to the Massachusetts-based research and advocacy organization, BishopAccountability.org.

The Philadelphia archdiocese and the Johnstown-Altoona diocese were not included in the investigation because they have been the subject of three previous scathing grand jury investigations.

The grand jury heard from dozens of witnesses and reviewed more than a half-million pages of internal diocesan documents, including reports by bishops to Vatican officials disclosing the details of abusive priests that they had not made public or reported to law enforcement.

The grand jury concluded that a succession of Catholic bishops and other diocesan leaders tried to shield the church from bad publicity and financial liability. They failed to report accused clergy to police, used confidentiality agreements to silence victims and sent abusive priests to so-called “treatment facilities,” which “laundered” the priests and “permitted hundreds of known offenders to return to ministry,” the report said.

The conspiracy of silence extended beyond church grounds: police or prosecutors sometimes did not investigate allegations out of deference to church officials or brushed off complaints as outside the statute of limitations, the grand jury said.

Diocese leaders responded Tuesday by expressing sorrow for the victims, stressing how they’ve changed and unveiling, for the first time, a list of priests accused of some sort of sexual misconduct.

James VanSickle of Pittsburgh, who testified he was sexually attacked in 1981 by a priest in the Erie Diocese, called the report’s release “a major victory to get our voice out there, to get our stories told.”

The report is still the subject of an ongoing legal battle, with redactions shielding the identities of some current and former clergy named in the report while the state Supreme Court weighs their arguments that its wrongful accusations against them violates their constitutional rights. It also is expected to spark another fight by victim advocates to win changes in state law that lawmakers have resisted.

Its findings echoed many earlier church investigations around the country, describing widespread sexual abuse and church officials’ concealment of it. U.S. bishops have acknowledged that more than 17,000 people nationwide have reported being molested by priests and others in the church.

The report comes at a time of fresh scandal at the highest levels of the U.S. Catholic Church. Pope Francis last month stripped 88-year-old Cardinal Theodore McCarrick of his title amid allegations that McCarrick had for years sexually abused boys and committed sexual misconduct with adult seminarians.

One senior American church official named in the grand jury report is Cardinal Donald Wuerl, who leads the Washington archdiocese, for allegedly helping to protect abusive priests when he was Pittsburgh’s bishop. Wuerl, who was bishop of the Pittsburgh diocese from 1988 to 2006, disputed the allegations.

Terry McKiernan of BishopAccountability.org said the report did a good job of highlighting the two crimes of church sex abuse scandals: the abuse of a child and the cover up by church officials that allows the abuse to continue.

“One thing this is going to do is put pressure on prosecutors elsewhere to take a look at what’s going on in their neck of the woods,” McKiernan said.

Associated Press writers Nicole Winfield in Vatican City, Claudia Lauer and Michael Rubinkam in Pennsylvania and David Porter in New Jersey contributed to this report.</s>In a sweeping 884-page report, a statewide investigating grand jury portrayed the Diocese of Scranton and five other Roman Catholic dioceses across Pennsylvania as guilty of brushing aside victims and covering up “widespread sexual abuse” by 301 priests, state Attorney General Josh Shapiro said.

The report, which some readers may find graphic and disturbing, is available HERE.

 

 The 301 priests included 59 from the Diocese of Scranton with the names of six still redacted in the grand jury report because of state Supreme Court challenges to the release of their names.

 

 At a Harrisburg news conference shown online and on cable television today, Shapiro said the priests’ victims numbered more than 1,000 confirmed, but said the grand jury found probably thousands more were victimized.

 

 Church officials dismissed victim accounts and recycled priests by moving them from one church to another, sometimes seeking a diocese out of state to accept an abusive priest, he said.

 

 “As the grand jury found, the church showed a complete disdain for victims,” he said.

 

 He singled out stories in each diocese, including one involving a Diocese of Scranton priest, Thomas Skotek, who raped a young girl, got her pregnant and arranged an abortion for her.

 

 Bishop James C. Timlin wrote a letter focused on the rape, saying “this is a very difficult time in your life and I realize how upset you are.’

 

 “I too share your grief,” Timlin wrote, Shapiro said.

 

 “Except the bishop didn’t write that letter to the girl,” Shapiro said. “The bishop wrote that letter to the priest.”

 

 Sometimes, victims sought help from law enforcement only to be ignored, the attorney general said.

 In one instance, a victimized boy ran into the Scranton police station to complain of abuse at the hands of a priest.

 

 The officer on duty told him, “I don’t want to know anything about this, I just want you to get out of here,” the officer said.

 

 Shapiro said the grand jury recommended four major reforms. He advocated:

 

 ■ Eliminating the statute of limitations for abusing children.

 “Justice for these victims should not be denied,” he said.

 

 ■ Create a longer window for victims to sue for damages. The law gives victims 12 years once they turn 18, but victims in their 30s only get two years to sue, Shapiro said.

 “This is unacceptable,” he said.

 Victims shouldn’t have to go without help to fix “the demons imposed upon them by the church.”

 “In the words of the grand jury, trust the victims, adopt this reform,” Shapiro said.

 

 ■ Clarify laws requiring reporting to abuse.

 

 ■ Bar civil lawsuit agreements that block victims from reporting abuse to police.

 Shapiro challenged the dioceses “that claim to have changed their ways” to “adopt and support each and every one of these recommendations.”

 

 The report identified 59 priests in the Diocese of Scranton. The Diocese of Scranton covers 11 counties: Bradford, Lackawanna, Luzerne, Lycoming, Monroe, Pike, Sullivan, Susquehanna, Tioga, Wayne and Wyoming.

 

 Here are some of the key findings of the report: 

 

 The Grand Jury uncovered evidence of sexual abuse of minors committed by dozens of priests in the Diocese of Scranton.

 

 This sexual abuse included grooming and fondling of genitals and/or intimate body parts, as well as penetration of the vagina, mouth, or anus.

 

 The evidence also showed that diocesan administrators, including the bishops, had knowledge of this conduct yet regularly placed the priests in ministry after the Diocese was on notice that a complaint of child sexual abuse had been made. This conduct enabled the offenders and endangered the welfare of children.

 

 The evidence demonstrated that the Diocese had discussions with lawyers regarding the sexual conduct of priests with children and made settlements with the victims. These settlements contained confidentiality agreements forbidding victims from speaking out about their abuse under threat of some penalty, such as legal action to recover previously paid settlement monies.

 

 Finally, the Grand Jury received evidence that several Diocesan administrators, including the bishops, often dissuaded victims from reporting to police or, conducted their own deficient,biased investigation without reporting crimes against children to the proper authorities.

 

 Diocese of Scranton Bishop Joseph Bambera has scheduled a news conference for later this afternoon to address the allegations.



 

 As the community copes with the findings in this report, Bishop Bambera offers his deepest apologies to the victims who have suffered because of past actions and decisions made by trusted clergymen, to victims’ families, to the faithful of the Church, and to the community at large. No one deserves to be confronted with the behaviors described in the report. Although painful to acknowledge, it is necessary to address such abuse in order to foster a time when no child is abused and no abuser is protected.

 

 The Diocese of Scranton cooperated fully with the Grand Jury because of its firm belief that child sexual abuse cannot be tolerated and must be eradicated from the Church. Now that the report has been made public, Bishop Bambera has released today the list of all of the accused clergy, staff and volunteers within the Diocese of Scranton. The Diocese shared the list of abusers with all 11 district attorneys within the Diocese in 2016 before it knew of the investigation, and then with the Grand Jury as part of the investigation. This is the complete list of names supplied to the Attorney General. It is posted on the Diocese of Scranton website: www.dioceseofscranton.org (Child Protection/Safe Environment Page).

 

 For well over a decade, ongoing improvements have been made to the manner in which abuse allegations are addressed. The Diocese of Scranton adheres to a strict zero tolerance policy, immediately informing law enforcement and removing the accused from the community when allegations are brought forth. And while properly handling allegations is critical, the ultimate goal of such efforts is to stop abuse altogether. While the past cannot be changed, the Diocese of Scranton remains dedicated to keeping our children safe from abuse moving forward.



Here is the list of offenders in the Diocese of Scranton: 

 

 1) Philip A. Altavilla

 2) Girard F. Angelo

 3) Mark G. Balczeniuk

 4) redacted

 5) Joseph P. Bonner

 6) Martin M. Boylan

 7) Robert J. Braque

 8) Francis T. Brennan

 9) Joseph W. Bucolo

 10) Gerald J. Burns

 11) Robert N. Caparelli

 12) Anthony P. Conmy

 13) J. Peter Crynes

 14) Raymond L. Deviney

 15) redacted

 16) Donald J. Dorsey

 17) redacted

 18) John M. Duggan

 19) John J. Dzurko

 20) James F. Farry

 21) James F. Fedor

 22) Ralph N. Ferraldo

 23) Angelus Ferrara

 24) Austin E. Flanagan

 25) Joseph D. Flannery

 26) Martin J. Fleming

 27) Robert J. Gibson

 28) Joseph G. Gilgallon

 29) Joseph A. Griffin

 30) Joseph T. Hammond

 31) P. Lawrence Homer

 32) Mark A. Honart

 33) Joseph F. Houston

 34) redacted

 35) redacted

 36) Francis G. Kulig

 37) Albert M. Libertore, Jr.

 38) John A. Madaj

 39) redacted

 40) James M. McAuliffe

 41) Neil McLaughlin

 42) Joseph F. Meighan

 43) Russell E. Motsay

 44) James F. Nolan

 45) W. Jeffrey Paulish

 46) John A. Pender

 47) Mark T. Rossetti

 48) Edward J. Shoback

 49) Thomas P. Shoback

 50) Thomas D. Skotek

 51) John J. Tamalis

 52) Virgil B. Thetherow

 53) Robert M. Timchak

 54) Lawrence P. Weniger

 55) Joseph B. Wilson

 Society of St. John

 56) Christopher R. Clay

 57) Eric S. Ensey

 58) Carlos Urrutigoity

 59) Benedict J. Van der Putten</s>HARRISBURG, Pa. — Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro has released the long-awaited grand jury report detailing alleged sex abuse by Roman Catholic clergy in six of the state’s eight dioceses.

The grand jury identified 301 predator priests based on secret archives in each of the dioceses involving over 1,000 victims.

The report identifies 59 priests in the Diocese of Scranton, 45 priests in the Diocese of Harrisburg, and 37 priests in the Diocese of Allentown as child sexual abusers.

Shapiro said almost all cases of alleged abuse took place too long ago to be prosecuted.

The report contains redactions ordered by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.

Shapiro vowed to go to court to get the redactions in the report removed.

The report also shows 99 priests accused in the Diocese of Pittsburgh, 41 priests in the Diocese of Erie, and 20 priests in the Diocese of Greensburg.

In June, the Supreme Court blocked the planned release of the report to consider legal challenges to releasing the report.

Last month, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ordered the grand jury report to be released by 2 p.m. August 14 with redactions in sections where litigation was ongoing.

Earlier this month, ahead of the release of the attorney general’s report, the Diocese of Harrisburg published a list of 71 people connected with the diocese accused of sexual abuse and launched a new website to combat the issue.

Bishop Ronald Gainer announced the findings of the diocese own internal investigation into child sex abuse. Bishop Gainer said the Diocese of Harrisburg Youth Protection Program is dedicated to the healing and reconciliation of victims of sexual abuse as a minor.

The bishop also waived any past confidentiality rights agreements so survivors can feel free to tell their story. The Diocese of Harrisburg includes five counties in our viewing area: Columbia, Montour, Northumberland, Snyder, and Union.</s>More than 300 "predator priests" in six Roman Catholic dioceses across Pennsylvania were protected by church leaders more interested in safeguarding the church and the abusers than tending to their victims, a scathing grand jury report to be released Tuesday claims.

Small parts of the voluminous report were made public in advance of the release via court documents.

“The main thing was not to help children, but to avoid scandal,” the report says. "Priests were raping little boys and girls and the men of God who were responsible for them not only did nothing: They hid it all.”

The redacted report details the latest in a decades-long series of claims of abuse and protection leveled against the church across the nation and around the world. As recently as last month, Pope Francis accepted the resignation of prominent Vatican official Cardinal Theodore McCarrick amid claims of sexual abuse almost 40 years ago.

The Pennsylvania report accused church leaders in the state of discouraging victims from reporting the crimes, which span more than 60 years.

“Several diocesan administrators, including the bishops, often dissuaded victims from reporting abuse to police, pressured law enforcement to terminate or avoid an investigation or conducted their own deficient, biased investigation without reporting crimes against children to the proper authorities,” the report says.

Some of the accused have died, and statute of limitations laws prevent many others from facing criminal charges.

One priest named in the report pleaded guilty last month to charges that he sexually abused a 10-year-old boy more than 20 years ago. Another has been charged with felony child sex crimes.

The grand jury compiled the information during a two-year investigation. State Attorney General Josh Shapiro called the report an "honest and comprehensive accounting of widespread sexual abuse" in the dioceses of Allentown, Erie, Greensburg, Harrisburg, Pittsburgh and Scranton that minister to more than 1.7 million Catholics.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court last month ordered release of the document but named a county judge to negotiate how much would be withheld from public view. Some current and former priests who deny the allegations fought to have their names redacted.

The Erie Diocese last week released a list of more than 60 people "credibly accused" of actions that the diocese said disqualified them from working with children. Bishop Lawrence Persico, in a letter this week preparing parishioners for the grand jury report, said it was "shocking to read the graphic details" of the abuse claims.

"The most important thing I want to do at this moment is to express my sorrow to the victims of sexual abuse that occurred within the Diocese of Erie," Persico wrote. "They have experienced cruel behavior by the very individuals who should have had the greatest interest in protecting them."

The Harrisburg Diocese earlier this month identified 71 priests and other members of the church who had been accused of child sex abuse.

"That conduct has left a legacy of pain and sorrow that is still being felt," Harrisburg Bishop Ronald Gainer wrote in a letter to the diocese."I apologize for these actions."

Gainer also announced sweeping changes to confidentiality policies and stripped from any place of honor in the diocese the names of bishops and others associated with the abuses.

Previous grand jury investigations found widespread abuse in the Philadelphia archdiocese and Altoona-Johnstown diocese.

Sexual abuse scandals have rocked the Roman Catholic Church for decades, not just in the U.S. but throughout the world. Courts and prosecutors have filed indictments and sued for damages in the ongoing efforts to hold the church accountable for the abuse crisis.

Several high-ranking clergy members, including the most senior Roman Catholic cleric in Australia, have gone to prison or been ordered to serve home detention sentences.

The scandals have also hit the church hard financially, and many dioceses have paid millions in compensation to victims. In June, the Roman Catholic Church of Rochester divulged that it had paid $1.6 million to at least 20 children who had been sexually abused by 24 priests since 1950.

Eighteen U.S. dioceses and religious orders in the U.S. have filed for bankruptcy protection during the ongoing sexual abuse crisis, according to the website BishopAccountability.org, which tracks sexual abuse cases.

A 19th, the Diocese of St. Cloud in Minnesota, announced plans in February to file for bankruptcy protection.The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis said in late May that it has agreed to pay a $210 million settlement to 450 victims of clergy sexual abuse, one of the largest payouts to date in the U.S. over the scandal.</s>HARRISBURG, Pa. — Hundreds of Roman Catholic priests in Pennsylvania molested more than 1,000 children — and possibly many more — since the 1950s, and senior church officials, including a man who is now the archbishop of Washington, D.C., systematically covered up the abuse, according to a grand jury report released Tuesday.

The real number” of abused children might be in the thousands since some secret church records were lost, and victims were afraid to come forward, the grand jury said.

“Church officials routinely and purposefully described the abuse as horseplay and wrestling and inappropriate conduct. It was none of those things. It was child sexual abuse, including rape,” Attorney General Josh Shapiro said at a news conference in Harrisburg.

The report put the number of abusive clergy at more than 300. In nearly all of the cases, the statute of limitations has run out, meaning that criminal charges cannot be filed. Many of the priests are dead or retired, while others have been dismissed from the priesthood or put on leave.

“We are sick over all the crimes that will go unpunished and uncompensated,” the grand jury said.

Authorities evaluated each suspect and were able to charge just two, including a priest who has since pleaded guilty. Shapiro said the investigation is ongoing.

The grand jury accused Cardinal Donald Wuerl, who leads the Washington archdiocese, of helping to protect abusive priests when he was Pittsburgh’s bishop. Wuerl, who led the Pittsburgh diocese from 1988 to 2006, disputed the allegations.

“While I understand this report may be critical of some of my actions, I believe the report confirms that I acted with diligence, with concern for the victims and to prevent future acts of abuse,” he said in a statement. “I sincerely hope that a just assessment of my actions, past and present, and my continuing commitment to the protection of children will dispel any notions otherwise made by this report.”

The grand jury scrutinized abuse allegations in dioceses that minister to more than half the state’s 3.2 million Catholics. Its report echoed the findings of many earlier church investigations around the country in its description of widespread sexual abuse by clergy and church officials’ concealment of it.

Most of the victims were boys, but girls were abused, too, the report said.

The abuse ranged from groping and masturbation to anal, oral and vaginal rape. One boy was forced to say confession to the priest who sexually abused him. A 9-year-old boy was forced to perform oral sex and then had his mouth washed out with holy water. Another boy was made to pose naked as if being crucified and then was photographed by a group of priests who Shapiro said produced and shared child pornography on church grounds.

The grand jury concluded that a succession of Catholic bishops and other diocesan leaders tried to shield the church from bad publicity and financial liability. They failed to report accused clergy to police and sent abusive priests to so-called “treatment facilities,” which “laundered” the priests and “permitted hundreds of known offenders to return to ministry,” the report said.

The cover-up extended beyond church grounds. The grand jury said it found cases in which police or prosecutors learned of clergy sex abuse allegations but did not investigate out of deference to church officials.

The grand jury’s report comes at a time of renewed scrutiny and fresh scandal at the highest levels of the U.S. Catholic Church. Pope Francis stripped 88-year-old Cardinal Theodore McCarrick of his title and ordered him to a lifetime of prayer and penance amid allegations that McCarrick had for years sexually abused boys and had sexual misconduct with adult seminarians.

Wuerl has come under harsh criticism over his response to the McCarrick scandal, with some commentators questioning his claims of surprise and ignorance over allegations that McCarrick molested and harassed young seminarians.

Wuerl replaced McCarrick as Washington’s archbishop after McCarrick retired in 2006.

The Pennsylvania grand jury, convened by the state attorney general’s office in 2016, heard from dozens of witnesses and reviewed more than a half-million pages of internal documents from the Allentown, Erie, Greensburg, Harrisburg, Pittsburgh and Scranton dioceses.

The Pittsburgh diocese said a few priests are still in ministry because the diocese determined allegations against them were unsubstantiated.

Tim Lennon, the president of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, urged Pennsylvania lawmakers to lift civil and criminal statutes of limitations for child sex crimes, and to provide victims who no longer meet the age requirements in state law with a new window to file civil lawsuits.

Some current and former clergy named in the report went to court to prevent its release, arguing it violated their constitutional rights. The state Supreme Court said the public had a right to see it, but ruled the names of priests and others who objected to the findings would be blacked out pending a September hearing on their claims.

Twenty of the grand jurors said Tuesday they objected to “any attempts to censor, alter, redact or amend” the report.

Several dioceses decided to strip the accused of their anonymity and released the names of clergy members who were accused of sexual misconduct.</s>Around 300 Roman Catholic priests have molested more than 1,000 children – and possibly many more – in Pennsylvania since the 1940s, a US grand jury report has revealed.

Around 300 Roman Catholic priests have molested more than 1,000 children – and possibly many more – in Pennsylvania since the 1940s, a US grand jury report has revealed.

The report also accused senior church officials of systematically covering up complaints in the state.

The “real number” of abused children and abusive priests might be higher since some secret church records were lost and some victims never came forward, the grand jury said.

US bishops adopted sweeping reforms in 2002 when abuse by clergymen became a national crisis for the church. These changes included stricter requirements for reporting accusations to law enforcement and a streamlined process for removing clerics who abuse children.

However, the grand jury said more changes are needed.

In its 900-page report, the grand jury wrote: “Despite some institutional reform, individual leaders of the church have largely escaped public accountability.

“Priests were raping little boys and girls, and the men of God who were responsible for them not only did nothing; they hid it all.”

Top church officials have mostly been protected and many, including some named in the report, have been promoted, the grand jury said. The report concluded that “it is too early to close the book on the Catholic Church sex scandal”.

In nearly every case, prosecutors found that the statute of limitations has run out, meaning that criminal charges cannot be filed.

More than 100 of the priests are dead. Many others are retired or have been dismissed from the priesthood or put on leave.

Authorities charged just two as a result of the grand jury investigation, including a priest who has since pleaded guilty, though some of those named had been charged years ago.

Attorney general Josh Shapiro said the investigation is ongoing.

The investigation of six of Pennsylvania’s eight dioceses – Allentown, Erie, Greensburg, Harrisburg, Pittsburgh and Scranton – is the most extensive investigation of Catholic clergy abuse by any state, according to victims’ advocates. The dioceses represent about 1.7 million Catholics.

Until now, there have been just nine investigations by a prosecutor or grand jury of a Catholic diocese or archdiocese in the United States, according to the Massachusetts-based research and advocacy organisation, BishopAccountability.org.

The Philadelphia archdiocese and the Johnstown-Altoona diocese were not included in the investigation because they have been the subject of three previous scathing grand jury investigations.

The grand jury heard from dozens of witnesses and reviewed more than half a million pages of internal diocesan documents, including reports by bishops to Vatican officials disclosing the details of abusive priests that they had not made public or reported to law enforcement.

The panel concluded that a succession of Catholic bishops and other diocesan leaders tried to shield the church from bad publicity and financial liability.

They failed to report accused clergy to police, used confidentiality agreements to silence victims and sent abusive priests to so-called “treatment facilities” which “laundered” the priests and “permitted hundreds of known offenders to return to ministry,” the report said.

The conspiracy of silence extended beyond church grounds. Police or prosecutors sometimes did not investigate allegations out of deference to church officials or brushed off complaints as outside the statute of limitations, the grand jury said.

Diocese leaders expressed sorrow for the victims, stressed how they have changed and unveiled, for the first time, a list of priests accused of sexual misconduct.

James VanSickle of Pittsburgh, who testified he was sexually attacked in 1981 by a priest in the Erie Diocese, called the report’s release “a major victory to get our voice out there, to get our stories told”.

The report is still the subject of an ongoing legal battle, with redactions shielding the identities of some current and former clergy named in the report while the state supreme court weighs their arguments that its wrongful accusations against them violates their constitutional rights.

It is also expected to spark another fight by victims’ advocates to bring about changes in state law that congress members have resisted.

Its findings echoed many earlier church investigations around the country, describing widespread sexual abuse and church officials’ concealment of it.

US bishops have acknowledged that more than 17,000 people nationwide have reported being molested by priests and others in the church going back to 1950.</s>A new grand jury report says that internal documents from six Catholic dioceses in Pennsylvania show that more than 300 “predator priests” have been credibly accused of sexually abusing more than 1,000 child victims.

“We believe that the real number of children whose records were lost or who were afraid ever to come forward is in the thousands,” the grand jury report says.

“Priests were raping little boys and girls, and the men of God who were responsible for them not only did nothing; they hid it all. For decades. Monsignors, auxiliary bishops, bishops, archbishops, cardinals have mostly been protected; many, including some named in this report, have been promoted.”

The grand jury described the church’s methods as “a playbook for concealing the truth” after FBI agents identified a series of practices they found in diocese files.

The lengthy report, released Tuesday afternoon, investigates clergy sexual abuse dating to 1947 in six dioceses: Allentown, Erie, Greensburg, Harrisburg, Pittsburgh and Scranton.

Pennsylvania’s two other dioceses, Philadelphia and Altoona-Johnstown, have been the subjects of earlier grand jury reports, which found similarly damaging information about clergy and bishops in those dioceses.

“There have been other reports about child sex abuse within the Catholic Church. But never on this scale,” the grand jurors wrote in Tuesday’s report.

“For many of us, those earlier stories happened someplace else, someplace away. Now we know the truth: it happened everywhere.”

The grand jurors said that “almost every instance of abuse we found is too old to be prosecuted.” But charges have been filed against two priests, one in Erie diocese and another in Greensburg diocese, who have been accused of abusing minors.

“We learned of these abusers directly from their dioceses — which we hope is a sign that the church is finally changing its ways,” the grand jurors said. “And there may be more indictments in the future; investigation continues.”

At a news conference announcing the report’s release, Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro called it the “largest, most comprehensive report into child sexual abuse within the Catholic Church ever produced in the United States.”

At times, the lengthy catalog of clergy sexual abuses in the report is difficult to read. As the grand jurors note, priests and other Catholic leaders victimized boys and girls, teens and pre-pubescent children.

Some victims were plied with alcohol and groped or molested, the report says. Others were orally, vaginally or anally raped, according to the grand jurors.

“But all of them were brushed aside, in every part of the state, by church leaders who preferred to protect the abusers and their institution above all.”

Among the more egregious cases, the grand jury reports that:
• In the Greensburg diocese, a priest impregnated a 17-year-old, forged a pastor’s signature on a marriage certificate and divorced the girl months later. According to the grand jury, the priest was allowed to stay in ministry by finding a “benevolent bishop.”
• Another priest in Greensburg groomed middle-school students for sex, according to the grand jury, by telling them that Mary had to “bite off the cord” and “lick” Jesus clean after the Nativity.
• In Harrisburg, a priest abused five sisters from the same family and collected samples of their urine, pubic hair and menstrual blood.
• Also in Harrisburg, a priest raped a 7-year-old girl who was in the hospital after her tonsils were removed, according to the report.
• In Pittsburgh, church officials said that a 15-year-old boy “pursued” and “literally seduced” a priest. A church report later acknowledged that the priest had admitted to “sado-masochistic” activities with several boys.
• In the Allentown diocese, a priest admitted sexually molesting a boy and pleaded for help, according to documents, but was left in ministry for several more years.
• Also in Allentown, a priest who had abused several boys, according to the grand jury, was given a recommendation to work at Disney World.
• In Scranton, a priest who later served prison time for abusing children was found to have been HIV-positive for years.

Tuesday’s news conference began with a short video of three victims who told how they were abused and how it changed their lives.

An 83-year-old man said he couldn’t show any affection to his wife and children as a result of the abuse he suffered. A woman said the abuse started when she was 18 months old. Another man said, “When you have the priest touching you every day, that’s a hard memory to have. The first erection that you have is at the hands of a priest.”

The victims said this was “not a vendetta against the church” and that abusers have “to be accountable in the church for what they did.”

The grand jury’s searing report comes as the Catholic Church, including Pope Francis, is struggling to contain a sexual abuse scandal rapidly consuming the church on several continents.

In Australia, a bishop has been found guilty of covering up sexual abuse. In Chile, the Pope was forced to recant his dismissal of an abuse scandal involving a prominent priest and bishops accused of covering up his crimes.

And in the United States, a prominent archbishop was removed from the powerful College of Cardinals following reports that he had molested a teenage altar boy and several others while he was rising through the church’s ranks. Meanwhile, bishops in Boston and Nebraska are investigating possible cases of sexual abuse in Catholic seminaries.

“The report of the Pennsylvania grand jury again illustrates the pain of those who have been victims of the crime of sexual abuse by individual members of our clergy, and by those who shielded abusers and so facilitated an evil that continued for years or even decades,” Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and Bishop Timothy L. Doherty, chair of the bishops’ Committee for the Protection of Children and Young People, said in a statement.

“As a body of bishops, we are shamed by and sorry for the sins and omissions by Catholic priests and Catholic bishops.”

The Vatican declined to comment on the grand jury report.

DiNardo and Doherty noted that the grand jury’s report spans 70 years, and many of the abuse accusations were made before 2002, when the bishops adopted new policies. The policies, known as the Dallas Charter, after the city in which they were adopted, have been revised in 2011 and 2018.

The charter, the bishops said, “commits us to respond promptly and compassionately to victims, report the abuse of minors, remove offenders and take ongoing action to prevent abuse.”

For weeks, many Catholics in the United States had been warily waiting for the Pennsylvania grand jury’s report, especially as bishops in the state began publicly releasing the names of accused clergy in an apparent attempt to preempt some of the report’s findings.

In a statement on Monday before the report was published, Cardinal Donald Wuerl, the former Bishop of Pittsburgh who now heads the Archdiocese of Washington, said the report “will be a reminder of the grave failings that the church must acknowledge and for which it must seek forgiveness.”

“We are now in the midst of a new era where our communal bonds of trust are once again being tested by the sin of abuse.”

Court action had delayed the report’s publication. A number of individuals named in the report claimed that its findings were false or misleading, that they were denied due process of law and that its release would impair their reputations.

On July 27, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ordered the grand jury report to be released by 2 p.m. August 14 with redactions in sections where litigation was ongoing.

State Attorney General Josh Shapiro had written to Pope Francis on July 25, requesting that the Pontiff direct church leaders to stop “efforts to silence the survivors.”

“A comprehensive investigation by the Office of Attorney General found widespread sexual abuse of children and a systematic coverup by leaders of the Catholic Church,” Shapiro said in his letter.

On August 1, the leader of one of the largest Roman Catholic dioceses in Pennsylvania released a list identifying 71 priests, deacons and seminarians accused of “substantiated” sexual misconduct over the past seven decades.

Bishop Ronald Gainer of the Harrisburg Diocese also issued an apology on behalf of the religious community.

“That conduct has left a legacy of pain and sorrow that is still being felt,” he wrote. “I apologize for these actions.”

While most men on the Harrisburg list are accused of sexually abusing children, others were investigated for inappropriate behavior, such as kissing or inappropriately communicating with a minor, Gainer wrote. Others were accused of viewing or possessing child pornography.

The list did not say how the diocese handled most of the accusations and did not give the men’s current whereabouts, though a few cases that were forwarded to civil authorities were more detailed.</s>Report Reveals Widespread Sexual Abuse By Over 300 Priests In Pennsylvania

A long-awaited grand jury investigation into clergy sexual abuse in Pennsylvania was released Tuesday in an interim redacted form. The report detailed decades of alleged misconduct and cover-ups in six of the state's eight Roman Catholic dioceses.

The roughly 900-page report, not including exhibits, is thought to be the most comprehensive of its kind and paints a horrid portrait of activity that occurred in the dioceses of Scranton, Allentown, Harrisburg, Greensburg, Erie and Pittsburgh, implicating 300 "predator priests" statewide who committed "criminal and/or morally reprehensible conduct."

One priest in the Diocese of Harrisburg abused five sisters in a single family. Another, in the Diocese of Greensburg, impregnated a 17-year-old girl, married her, then divorced her months later.

A priest in the Diocese of Erie admitted to assaulting at least a dozen boys, yet was later thanked by the bishop for "all that you have done for God's people."

The grand jury said it reviewed a half-million pages of internal church documents and "secret archives" that were readily available to bishops. It found credible allegations by more than 1,000 victims, but it added, "We believe that the real number ... is in the thousands."

The findings revealed a pattern of abuse that occurred in hundreds of parishes in 54 of Pennsylvania's 67 counties going back at least 80 years. It detailed how fellow clergy members conducted shoddy investigations into sexual abuse allegations and how bishops often sided with abusive priests.

"The pattern was abuse, deny and cover up," said state Attorney General Josh Shapiro at a press conference in Harrisburg on Tuesday. He described a "systematic cover-up" and a "failure of law enforcement."

The at-times-scathing report described a pattern of abuse that has never been seen "on this scale."

The report counted 41 "predator priests" in the Diocese of Erie, 37 in Allentown, 20 in Greensburg, 45 in Harrisburg, 99 in Pittsburgh, and 59 in Scranton.

Abuse in the Philadelphia and Altoona-Johnstown dioceses have been covered in previous reports.

The report noted that the state was not immune from the global sex abuse scandal in the church, saying, "For many of us, those earlier stories happened someplace else, someplace away. Now we know the truth: it happened everywhere."

The interim report was released just before the 2 p.m. deadline the state Supreme Court gave its appointed special master to sort out disputes regarding the redactions.

A majority of the activity described within the scathing investigation falls outside of Pennsylvania's statute of limitations for sexual crimes, and those clergy members both named and currently blacked out of the report are not expected to face criminal charges.

But the grand jury issued presentments against a priest in the Greensburg Diocese and a priest in the Erie Diocese, who it said had sexually assaulted children within the past decade.

In the wake of Shapiro's press conference, several of the diocese released statements.

"Sadly, abuse still is part of the society in which we live. We acknowledge our past failures, and we are determined to do what is necessary to protect the innocent, now and in the future," wrote Allentown Diocese Bishop Alfred A. Schlert.

Named prominently in the report is Cardinal Donald Wuerl, the archbishop of Washington, D.C., who served as the bishop of Pittsburgh from 1988 through 2006.

The grand jury found that Wuerl allegedly shuffled around abusive priests and failed to inform church officials in other states of priests who were moved there after facing sexual abuse allegations in the Pittsburgh Diocese.

In a letter to priests late Monday, Wuerl said he acted to protect children after learning about allegations of sexual abuse.

"It moved me not simply to address these acts, but to be fully engaged, to meet with survivors and their families, and to do what I could to bring them comfort and try to begin a process for healing," Wuerl wrote, saying he imposed a "zero tolerance" policy for clergy sex abuse.

When Wuerl came to Pittsburgh, he replaced then-Bishop Anthony Bevilacqua, who went on to become Archbishop of Philadelphia, where another grand jury said he had protected abusive priests. Bevilacqua died in 2012.

In this interim report, the grand jury made a list of recommendations, including eliminating the statute of limitations for child sexual abuse. It also called for a "civil window" law, which would give victims a two-year period to file civil charges retroactively.

"We saw these victims; they are marked for life. Many of them wind up addicted, or impaired, or dead before their time," wrote the grand jury.

In Pennsylvania, a victim of child sex abuse who turned 18 after Aug. 27, 2002, has until age 50 to file criminal charges. Those who turned 18 before that date can no longer bring a criminal case. For civil charges, child victims have until their 30th birthday to file, no matter when the abuse occurred.

Advocates for victims have long pushed to amend these statutes. They want to raise the age for civil filings and to abolish limitations on criminal charges, likening sexual abuse to murder.

They've also called for "window" legislation that would give victims a brief period to file civil charges retroactively.

Facing stiff opposition from groups such as the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference, pieces of legislation advancing such measures haven't found consensus.

The 40th Statewide Investigating Grand Jury was convened in 2016 in an investigation led by the Pennsylvania attorney general. Tuesday's redacted report came after months of legal battles challenging its release.

It was initially slated for public view at the end of June but was delayed after a group of unnamed current and former clergy filed objections claiming that publishing the report would violate their due process rights.

Attorneys for the clergy said the state should not be able to name or implicate individuals without charging them with a crime or allowing them to challenge evidence and cross-examine witnesses. As is typical in grand jury proceedings, the clergy members had been invited to file a written response to the report.

In response to objections from clergy, the state Supreme Court stayed the report's release to allow more time for appeals.

Nine news outlets — including NPR member station WHYY, the lead station of Keystone Crossroads — and the state attorney general's office then pushed to make the report public, even if only in a redacted form.

Shapiro called the clergy's appeals a "desperate attempt to stop the public from learning the truth about their abhorrent conduct" and said he opposes giving clergy the option to essentially rewrite the report "in accordance with their preferred view of the facts."

Norman Krumenacker III, the Cambria County judge who presided over the grand jury investigation, also disagreed with the clergy and pushed for an unredacted report to be released.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court said Krumenacker's logic was flawed. It argued that the state constitution compels the court to put a high premium on an individual's right to reputation. In a July 27 order, the high court agreed with an alternate plan proposed by the media intervenors and decided a version that redacted the names of the objectors would be released by mid-August.

Hearings to decide whether the complaints by individual clergy members are valid will be held in September in Philadelphia.

The group of unnamed challengers said even a redacted version would violate grand jury secrecy rules, because it includes specific facts from the report and "would impermissibly lift the cloak of anonymity they have been afforded."

The legal battle has sparked a debate over Pennsylvania's use of grand jury proceedings, in which 23 jurors meet in private to sort through potential evidence on complicated crimes or issues of public importance.

Prosecutors say such proceedings can help develop particularly difficult cases and bring to light issues that would otherwise remain hidden. Critics say the process should not be used to identify and criticize individuals who haven't been charged with crimes.</s>Report Reveals Widespread Sexual Abuse By Over 300 Priests In Pennsylvania

A long-awaited grand jury investigation into clergy sexual abuse in Pennsylvania was released Tuesday in an interim, redacted form. The report detailed decades of alleged misconduct and cover-ups in six of the state's eight Roman Catholic dioceses.

The roughly 900-page report, thought to be the most comprehensive of its kind, paints a horrid portrait of activity that occurred in the dioceses of Scranton, Allentown, Harrisburg, Greensburg, Erie and Pittsburgh, implicating 300 "predator priests" statewide who committed "criminal and/or morally reprehensible conduct."

One priest in the Diocese of Harrisburg abused five sisters in a single family. Another, in the Diocese of Greensburg, impregnated a 17-year-old girl, married her, then divorced her months later.

A priest in the Diocese of Erie admitted to assaulting at least a dozen boys, yet was later thanked by the bishop for "all that you have done for God's people."

The grand jury said it reviewed a half-million pages of internal church documents and "secret archives" that were readily available to bishops. It found credible allegations by more than 1,000 victims, adding, "We believe that the real number ... is in the thousands."

The findings revealed a pattern of abuse that occurred in hundreds of parishes in 54 of Pennsylvania's 67 counties going back at least 80 years. It detailed how fellow clergy members conducted shoddy investigations into sexual abuse allegations and how bishops often sided with abusive priests.

"The pattern was abuse, deny and cover up," said Attorney General Josh Shapiro at a press conference in Harrisburg on Tuesday, who described a "systematic cover-up" and a "failure of law enforcement."

The report counted 41 "predator priests" in the Diocese of Erie, 37 in Allentown, 20 in Greensburg, 45 in Harrisburg, 99 in Pittsburgh, and 59 in Scranton.

The interim report was released just before the 2 p.m. deadline the state Supreme Court gave its appointed special master to sort out disputes regarding the redactions.

A majority of the activity described within the scathing investigation falls outside of Pennsylvania's statute of limitations for sexual crimes, and those clergy members both named and currently blacked out of the report are not expected to face criminal charges.

But the grand jury issued presentments against a priest in the Greensburg Diocese and a priest in the Erie Diocese, who it said had sexually assaulted children within the last decade.

In the wake of Shapiro's press conference, several of the diocese released statements.

"Sadly, abuse still is part of the society in which we live. We acknowledge our past failures, and we are determined to do what is necessary to protect the innocent, now and in the future," wrote Allentown Diocese bishop Alfred A. Schlert.

The grand jury made a list of recommendations, including eliminating the statute of limitations for child sexual abuse. It also called for a "civil window" law, which would give victims a two-year period to file civil charges retroactively.

"We saw these victims; they are marked for life. Many of them wind up addicted, or impaired, or dead before their time," wrote the grand jury.

In Pennsylvania, a victim of child sex abuse who turned 18 after Aug. 27, 2002, has until age 50 to file criminal charges. Those who turned 18 before that date cannot bring a criminal case. For civil charges, child victims have until their 30th birthday to file, no matter when the abuse occurred.

Advocates for victims have long pushed to amend these statutes. They want to raise the age for civil filings and to abolish limitations on criminal charges, likening sexual abuse to murder.

They've also called for "window" legislation that would give victims a brief period to file civil charges retroactively.

Facing stiff opposition from groups such as the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference, pieces of legislation advancing such measures haven't found consensus.

The 40th Statewide Investigating Grand Jury was convened in 2016 in an investigation led by the Pennsylvania attorney general. Tuesday's redacted report came after months of legal battles challenging its release.

It was initially slated for public view at the end of June, but was delayed after a group of unnamed current and former clergy filed objections claiming that publishing the report would violate their due process rights.

Attorneys for the clergy said the state should not be able to name or implicate individuals without charging them with a crime or allowing them to challenge evidence and cross-examine witnesses. As is typical in grand jury proceedings, the clergy members had been invited to file a written response to the report.

In response to objections from clergy, the state Supreme Court stayed the report's release to allow more time for appeals.

Nine news outlets — including WHYY, the lead station of Keystone Crossroads — and the state attorney general's office then pushed to make the report public, even if only in a redacted form.

Attorney General Josh Shapiro called the clergy's appeals a "desperate attempt to stop the public from learning the truth about their abhorrent conduct," and said he opposes giving clergy the option to essentially rewrite the report "in accordance with their preferred view of the facts."

Norman Krumenacker III, the Cambria County judge who presided over the grand jury investigation, also disagreed with the clergy and pushed for an unredacted report to be released in full.

The Pa. Supreme Court said Krumenacker's logic was flawed. It argued that the Pa. Constitution compels the court to put a high premium on an individual's right to reputation. In a July 27 order, the high court agreed with an alternate plan proposed by the media intervenors and decided a version which redacted the names of the objectors would be released by mid-August.

Hearings to decide if the complaints by individual clergy members are valid will be held in September in Philadelphia.

The group of unnamed challengers said even a redacted version would violate grand jury secrecy rules, because it includes specific facts from the report and "would impermissibly lift the cloak of anonymity they have been afforded."

The legal battle has sparked a debate over Pennsylvania's use of grand jury proceedings, in which 23 jurors meet in private to sort through potential evidence on complicated crimes or issues of public importance.

Prosecutors say such proceedings can help develop particularly difficult cases and bring to light issues that would otherwise remain hidden. Critics say the process should not be used to identify and criticize individuals who haven't been charged with crimes.

Abuse in the Philadelphia and Altoona-Johnstown dioceses have been covered in previous reports.
A grand jury report alleging that more than 300 priests abused over 1,000 children in six Pennsylvania Catholic diocese -- Allentown, Scranton, Harrisburg, Pittsburgh, Greensburg, and Erie -- is released by state Attorney General Josh Shapiro.