In August 2018, the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s office announced that it would be investigating accusations of sexual abuse at Catholic Church institutions in the state.
The pennsylvania priest abuse list is a list of priests who have been accused of sexual abuse in the Pennsylvania Catholic Church.
Grand Jury Report on Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church in Pennsylvania
Six Pennsylvania dioceses were investigated by the grand jury that compiled the report on Pennsylvania Catholic clergy sex abuse: Allentown, Erie, Greensburg, Harrisburg, Pittsburgh, and Scranton. The dioceses of Philadelphia and Altoona-Johnstown were not included in this report since they were previously investigated by a separate grand jury.
According to the grand jury, child sex abuse was committed by more than 300 priests or church officials in Pennsylvania’s six dioceses, which include 54 of the state’s 67 counties.
Read more: Allegations of Priest Abuse in Pennsylvania Prompt Lawsuits
Who Were the Abuse Victims?
Witness testimony and internal church records were used to compile the grand jury’s findings in Pennsylvania.
The grand jury stated, “We subpoenaed and examined half a million pages of internal diocesan records.” “There were credible accusations against over 300 predator priests in them. From the church’s own records, almost a thousand child victims could be identified.”
Teenage males and girls, as well as prepubescent youngsters, were among the casualties. Thousands more children are believed to have been abused, according to the study.
“Priests were rapping young boys and girls, and the men of God in charge of them not only did nothing, but they also covered it up. The grand jury report said, “For decades.”
Victims of Abuse in the Catholic Church in Pennsylvania May Be Protected Under New Legislation
Was the Abuse Covered Up by the Pennsylvania Catholic Church?
According to the grand jury, church officials went to considerable efforts to conceal the abuse that was taking place.
“Everything of them were pushed off by church authorities in every area of the state who chose to protect the abusers and their institution above all else,” they wrote.
While the grand jury investigated priests’ activities throughout the past seven decades, it also discovered cases of priests sexually abusing victims in the recent ten years.
The grand jury notes that many of the cases have past the statute of limitations, which means that the offenders can no longer be punished, due to the massive cover-up.
The grand jury’s findings contains a list of names in each diocese of “both the sex offenders and those who hid them.”
The pennsylvania statewide investigating grand jury is a lawsuit filed by the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office against the Catholic Church in order to investigate claims of sexual abuse.
Related Tags
- catholic church sex abuse statistics
- catholic church scandal 2021
- catholic church abuse scandal timeline
- pennsylvania grand jury report pdf
- philadelphia catholic church abuse report