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| More than 300 priests listed in Pennsylvania's jury report / photo from stock-sector (ctto) |
Manila, Philippines – There are more than 300 priests across
Pennsylvania were accused of sexualIy abusing more than 1, 000 children says a
new grand jury report.
According to internal documents from six Catholic dioceses
in Pennsylvania, more than 300 “predator priest” have been credibly charged of abusing
little boys and girls’ sexuaIIy.
“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 raplng 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." It added.
The grand jury also described the church’s technique as "a
playbook for concealing the truth" - after the authorities found
series of practices in diocese files.
A lengthy report that was released on Tuesday, the
investigation done covers abuse by clergies since 1947 in six dioceses: Allentown,
Erie, Greensburg, Harrisburg, Pittsburgh and Scranton.
"There have been other reports about child sex abuse
within the Catholic Church. But never on this scale," the jurors stated in
its report
Reportedly, the grand jury reviewed more than 2 million
documents in an 18-month long investigation, which includes the “secret
archives” – is what the church referred to as the reports hidden from the
public for decades, says state Attorney General Josh Shapiro said at a
news conference Tuesday.*
Shapiro, in the said conference called it the "largest,
most comprehensive report into child sexual abuse within the Catholic Church
ever produced in the United States."
Furthermore, the jury stressed that these victims were
brushed aside by the church, which preferred to protect the abusers and the
institution above all.
The jury report has a lot to tell the world, stories that
are really hard to accept.
The said investigation has helped renew a crisis that many
in the church thought had ended for nearly 20 years since the church scandal in
Boston.
Just recently, according to The Washington Post, abuse-related
scandals, including in Australia and Chile, have reopened questions about
accountability and whether church officials at the highest levels are still
covering up for the crimes.
A reporter named James VanSickle, 55, recalled that a priest
in Erie used to sexuaIIy abuse reporters too. But the said clergy was not
prosecuted for his crime because the statute of limitations had already passed.
“This is the murder of a soul,” said VanSickle, who testified
before the grand jury.
“We don’t have a
statute of limitations on the crime of murder. We don’t go after victims . . .
and question their ‘repressed memories’ or ‘recovered memories.’ ” he
said.
Source: CNN, The Washington Post
