The shocking grand jury report that alleges that hundreds of Catholic priests molested thousands of children in Pennsylvania for decades comes with a sobering caution: It's up to the church to set things right, because there's very little the legal system can do, at least for now. In an exhaustive report, which runs 884 pages — 1,356 with exhibits and responses — the 23-member panel alleged that over more than six decades, 301 "predator priests" in six dioceses abused more than 1,000 children whose identities it found in church records. It said the overall number of children who were abused, including those who declined to come forward and those whose records have been lost, "is in the thousands." In extensive detail, the grand jury built a case that concludes that "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." And "while the list of priests is long, we don't think we got them all," the report says. The report addresses only six of Pennsylvania's eight dioceses — Allentown, Erie, Greensburg, Harrisburg, Pittsburgh and Scranton, but not Altoona-Johnstown or Philadelphia. But state Attorney General Josh Shapiro said at a news conference that it was clear that abuse "was pervasive to the entire commonwealth of Pennsylvania." We ask the Pennsylvania legislature to stop shielding child sexual predators behind the criminal statute of limitations." And at least for now, all the state can do about it is to name and shame, because the grand jury had no authority to indict anyone and because state law provides only a narrow window of time for alleged abusers to be prosecuted. "We wanted to charge as many of these predators as we could, but because of our weak laws in Pennsylvania, we could only charge two of the 301 predator priests that were identified," Shapiro told NBC News. "And so it was critically important, as the grand jurors said, to ensure that the truth be told." The state Supreme Court released the redacted version of the report on Tuesday after two years of investigation by the state attorney general's office and two months of court wrangling over whether it should be released at all. Release of the report was held up because about 25 accused priests, church leaders or their representatives challenged making their names public, arguing that they hadn't been convicted of any crime and were entitled to protect their reputations. Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro said at a news conference in Harrisburg on Tuesday that he would seek to have every name redacted in the grand jury report made public. Matt Rourke / AP Their names are blacked out in the version of the report that was released Tuesday. The state Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments over publicizing their identities next month. "Let me be very clear: Every redaction represents an incomplete story of abuse that deserves to be revealed," Shapiro said. "My office is not satisfied with the release of a redacted report." Other avenues of recourse are blocked because many of the accused are dead — the allegations stretch back to 1947 — and because for almost all of the others, the statute of limitations has expired. "First, we ask the Pennsylvania legislature to stop shielding child sexual predators behind the criminal statute of limitations," the grand jury recommended. The grand jury reported that it heard from alleged victims now in their 50s, 60s and 70s — it said one was 83 — who have carried their burdens for decades. "We saw these victims; they are marked for life," it said. "Many of them wind up addicted, or impaired, or dead before their time." But their abusers don't, and "we want future child predators to know they should always be looking over their shoulder — no matter how long they live," the grand jury said. The state Senate last year passed a measure that would eliminate the criminal statute of limitations. Legislative leaders said Tuesday that they plan a vote in the state House next month. The Pennsylvania Catholic Conference says it "does not oppose" efforts to repeal the statute of limitations for criminal cases, and as publicity about the release of the report built in recent weeks, it said it supported the new measure. But the grand jury also called for a "civil window" law, which would allow older victims to sue for abuse they suffered as children. Current state law allows victims to sue any time between the ages of 18 to 30; victims older than 30 have only two years to sue.<doc-sep>Pope Francis waves to the crowd aboard his Popemobile as he arrives for an audience with participants of an international pilgrimage of altar servers on August 4, 2015 in Saint Peter's Square at the Vatican. AFP PHOTO / FILIPPO MONTEFORTE (Photo credit should read FILIPPO MONTEFORTE/AFP/Getty Images) JOINT BASE ANDREWS, MD - SEPTEMBER 22: Pope Francis shakes hands with Vice President Joe Biden along with U.S. President Barack Obama, first lady Michelle Obama, and other political and Catholic church leaders after arriving from Cuba September 22, 2015 at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland. Francis will be visiting Washington, New York City and Philadelphia during his first trip to the United States as Pope. 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AFP PHOTO / ALBERTO PIZZOLI (Photo credit should read ALBERTO PIZZOLI/AFP/Getty Images) Cardinal Camillo Ruini prays during a papal mass for the 14th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops at St Peter's basilica on October 25, 2015 at the Vatican. AFP PHOTO / ANDREAS SOLARO (Photo credit should read ANDREAS SOLARO/AFP/Getty Images) Cardinals attend the religious mass 'Pro Eligendo Romano Pontifice' at Saint Peter's Basilica in the Vatican, Vatican City, 12 March 2013. The Catholic Church's 115 cardinal electors are taking part in a mass in St. Peter's Basilica on 12 March ahead of entering the conclave for a papal election that observers say has no clear favourite. The Pro Eligendo Romano Pontefice ('For the Election of the Roman Pontiff') mass is presided by Angelo Sodano, the elderly dean of the College of Cardinals, and is also open to non-voting cardinals - those aged more than 80. The next pope will take over a Church beset by infighting, scandal and dwindling support, particularly in the West. (CNN) — 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.” Molestations and rapes 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.” ’Grave failings’ 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.” Delays in publication 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. Harrisburg abuse list 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. CNN’s Carma Hassan, Julia Jones, Madeleine Thompson, Augusta Anthony and Janet DiGiacomo contributed to this report.<doc-sep>
It is time to face the horrible truth: The Catholic church is a pedophile ring. According to the grand jury report of six dioceses in Pennsylvania, over a period of 70 years, 300 priests abused over 1,000 children in Pennsylvania and church officials repeatedly covered it up. The release of the report is a searing indictment of the filth that has existed in the Catholic church. Sexual abuse has been institutionalized, routinized and tolerated by the church hierarchy for decades. If you think this statement is hyperbole, consider that the grand jury report includes, but is by no means limited to, the case of a ring of pedophile priests in Pittsburgh, who raped their male victims, took pornographic pictures of them and marked them by giving them gold crosses to wear so that they could be easily recognized by other abusers. At an emotional news conference Tuesday, state Attorney General Josh Shapiro stood before some of the victims of the abuse in the six Pennsylvania dioceses (which include Pittsburgh and the state capital Harrisburg). Announcing the report, Shapiro said that, for the first time, “we can begin to understand the systematic coverup of church officials.” The report was written by 23 grand jurors wrote over the course of two years, and is very clear about how the authorities of the church protected the clergy while further abusing victims with payoffs, silencing and attempts to denigrate their character. Two cardinals, Cardinal Wuerl and the now-deceased Cardinal Bevilacqua (who also figured prominently in the Philadelphia grand jury report), are among those who disciplined but moved around clergy who sexually abused children. While this report covers only six dioceses in Pennsylvania (there are eight in total, but the archdioceses of Philadelphia and the diocese of Altoona-Johnston were the subject of three previous grand jury investigations), it is breathtakingly horrific in documenting the scope of sexual abuse of children. It chronicles in detail how the Catholic hierarchy from the diocese to the Vatican worked not only mitigate the church's legal exposure, but to maintain strategies to “avoid scandal.” Sexual abuse has been institutionalized, routinized and tolerated by the church hierarchy for decades. These strategies used to subvert stories of abuse were so common that the FBI reviewed a significant portion of the evidence collected and received by the grand jury and found a series of practices engaged in by church leaders to conceal the truth. For instance, church authorities who documented the cases for internal use never used the word "rape," only “inappropriate contact.” Investigations were conducted by other clergy members, rather than trained personnel. Church-run health centers, not lay psychiatric facilities, were used to examine priests accused of pedophilia. Housing and funds were provided for priests, even when it was known they were raping children. Priests were moved from the area only if their communities found out, to other communities where the abusers and abuses were not known. Most importantly, the hierarchy was instructed to not inform law enforcement about abuses reported by parishioners, but to consider any such case an “internal personnel matter.” These practices sanctioned by the church hierarchy allowed the abuse of children to continue. The grand jury report is also rife with horror upon horror — anal rape, fondling, oral sex, child pornography, pregnancies, suicides — perpetrated upon children by priests, who were then moved about by church leaders who knew full well the despicable deeds they had done to children, and often did again. For instance, one woman was raped by a priest at the age of seven in her hospital room after surgery on her tonsils, was raped again by the same priest at age 13, and then again at age 19 while pregnant; she considered suicide. What was the priest's punishment for that and the other rapes and molestations to which he admitted? Bishop Ronald Gainer of Harrisburg, in submitting the case to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, stated: “I believe the scandal caused by his admission of the sexual abuse of minor girls has been sufficiently repaired by acceptance of the penal precept.” In other words, Gainer did not want the priest defrocked and so, as punishment, The Congregation for the Doctrine of the faith decided, after reviewing his file, that the priest in question should lead a life of prayer and penance. Prayer, and penance. An inadequate, paltry response for repeatedly raping a child.