Harrisburg diocese under investigation

York Daily Record
September 16, 2016

http://www.ydr.com/story/news/local/2016/09/16/state-ags-office-investigating-harrisburg-diocese/90466120/

Susan Blum holds her First Communion veil and her maternal grandmother's rosary for a portrait at her New Freedom home. Blum, 63, said she was sexually assaulted by a clergy member in the Archdiocese of Boston when she was 15. A New Freedom resident since 1988, Blum had attended St. John the Baptist Catholic Church for years, but left in March after clergy in the Diocese of Harrisburg read aloud a letter that opposed a Pennsylvania legislative bill that would drop a 30-year statute of limitations on when criminal sex-abuse charges can be filed. Photo by Chris Dunn

A state lawmaker who says he was abused by a suburban Philadelphia priest more than three decades ago now says state prosecutors are investigating priest abuse accusations in that diocese and in Harrisburg.

Democratic state Rep. Mark Rozzi says the state attorney general's office has a grand jury investigating the Roman Catholic Diocese of Allentown and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Harrisburg.

The Harrisburg diocese includes York, Adams, Franklin and Lebanon counties, among others in the region.

A spokesman for the Harrisburg diocese tells The Morning Call it has received a subpoena from the grand jury.

In August, a York Daily Record investigation reported that the Diocese of Harrisburg acknowledged by name 15 priests who have been accused of sexually abusing children and who at one time worked in the diocese — including one who served in Dallastown in 1989-90.

Several weeks later, the Diocese added three more names to the list.

A March report uncovered hundreds of abuse cases in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown that spanned decades.

"They [investigators] know Harrisburg is bad but I think people are really going to be shocked when they see the Allentown Diocese," the Morning Call quotes Rozzi. "It is just too disgusting."

The Allentown diocese and the state attorney general's office wouldn't confirm the investigation.

WGAL reports that the Harrisburg diocese released a statement regarding the investigation. The statement read in part: "We are cooperating fully with the state's Attorney General's office and will continue to do so throughout the investigation. We have zero tolerance for offenders and when a report of possible abuse is made in the Diocese of Harrisburg we promptly relay it to public authorities.”

A statement from the Allentown Diocese did not directly acknowledge a specific grand jury investigation, but said the diocese "is committed to the protection and safety of children and young people. To this end, it is the policy of the Diocese of Allentown to cooperate with law enforcement."

The statement, provided by diocese spokesman Matt Kerr, said diocese officials have zero tolerance for offenders, report allegations of abuse to authorities, pray for victims, and "continue to educate thousands of children and adults ... on how to spot and report abuse to the proper authorities."

Richard Serbin, an attorney who has represented alleged child sex abuse victims for decades, was called to testify before a grand jury investigating the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese in late 2015. In March of this year, the grand jury released a report alleging that two Roman Catholic bishops who led the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese helped cover up sexual abuse of hundreds of children. Serbin declined to describe his grand jury testimony.

But Serbin said that since testifying in late 2015, he has talked to and met with officials from the attorney general's office and provided them with "information concerning child predators, of which I was aware, in every diocese in Pennsylvania," including Allentown and Harrisburg dioceses.

Serbin said he hopes the reported grand jury investigation into the Harrisburg and Allentown dioceses leads to criminal prosecutions for "those individuals in positions of responsibility that protected child abusers. ...If you can’t identify those who are abusing children, they continue to molest kids."

But Serbin said he's concerned that statute of limitation laws in the state might prevent both criminal prosecution and civil litigation. He supports abolishing the statute of limitations for civil cases, or at least extending the limit to age 50 and making it retroactive so that claims that have expired could be filed in courts.

Lawmakers have been debating the issue of statute of limitations.