Erie bishop calls abuse findings ‘sobering,’ ‘graphic’

By Melissa Klaric
Tribune-Democrat
July 1, 2018

http://www.tribdem.com/news/erie-bishop-calls-abuse-findings-sobering-graphic/article_3537e8e4-7ce1-11e8-a63e-23f9552303f4.html

Bishop Lawrence T. Persico of the Erie Diocese

ERIE – Bishop Lawrence T. Persico sat in front of 23 angry grand jury members in April and apologized.

“I said that I was sorry that they had to sit there and listen for two years to hear all that,” said the Most Rev. Persico, who heads the diocese of Erie. “Well, they were upset. I can understand that. They are trying to get an understanding of what happened.”

The grand jury investigation into allegations spanning several decades of child sexual abuse includes Erie and five other Pennsylvania dioceses, Allentown, Greensburg, Harrisburg, Pittsburgh and Scranton.

Persico, 10th bishop of the Erie diocese, was the only bishop of the six to testify face-to-face with grand jury members at the hearings.

“All of the bishops who were subpoenaed by the grand jury were given an option – to appear in front of the grand jury, to plead the Fifth (Amendment) or to submit a written statement,” Persico said. “All of us chose to submit a written statement.”

Then, in April, Persico held a press conference announcing an update to the Erie Diocese policy on protecting children. The diocese also released a list of people in the diocese who have been banned from working with children due to credible accusations of misconduct.

This caught the attention of the state Attorney General Josh Shapiro, whose office asked Persico if he would speak to the grand jury.

The bishop did not know what to expect. Deputy State Attorney Daniel Dye met with him in a witness room to explain grand jury procedures.

He also told Persico he had the choice of answering the questions directly from the jury or providing answers to Dye in a separate room.

“I said, ‘I’ll sit there and take the questions.’ I thought it would be important because I wanted to see and hear what they were feeling,” Persico said. “So after that (Dye) said to me, ‘I want you to be aware, this is a hostile jury.’”

So he entered the courtroom and faced 23 people sitting on risers.

“And hostile was mild,” Persico said. “I mean, they were very angry, and rightly so. What those poor people for two years have gone through – listening to victims, listening to abusers.”

Dye, who was assigned to the grand jury hearings into sexual abuse allegations within the Altoona-Johnstown Catholic diocese, questioned Persico in front of the jury for about 20 minutes. Then, the members asked their own questions for roughly 40 minutes. Next, the bishop left the room for a short time, and was called back and questioned by Dye again.

“It was exhausting. It was emotionally draining,” the bishop said. “But if I had to do it over again, I would, because I think it’s important that they hear from me and I hear from them.”

The Herald interviewed Persico on June 22 – two days after the state Supreme Court halted the release of the 884-page grand jury report pending legal issues. He declined to get into the details of his testimony.

He did reveal that he read aloud to the grand jury the Erie Diocese policy on the protection of children, for the record.

Although the report is stalled, Persico has read the findings concerning the Erie Diocese and “other sections,” he said.

“I think it will be very sobering,” Persico said. “The report is not sanitized. It’s very graphic.”

The bishop compared it to the Altoona-Johnstown Catholic Diocese report released in February 2016.

The contents of that grand jury report detail sex crimes perpetrated by priests and lay people and the coverup of these crimes by bishops and law enforcement officials.

A listing of names investigated, including testimony by living persons, is prefaced by a summation: “These findings are both staggering and sobering. Over many years, hundreds of children have fallen victim to child predators wrapped in the authority and integrity of an honorable faith.

“As wolves disguised as the shepherds themselves – these men stole the innocence of children by sexually preying upon the most innocent and vulnerable members of our society and of the Catholic faith,” the report states.

The Altoona-Johnstown grand jury recommended that new legislation be enacted to “abolish the statute of limitation for sexual offenses against minors.” Since then, no such legislative action has passed in Harrisburg.

In reference to alleged sex abuse crimes within the diocese he has led for almost six years, Persico said he was shocked to see certain names of perpetrators listed in the grand jury report. He said names familiar to Shenango Valley residents might come as a shock to some.

“You see one side of the person, but none of us are in another person’s mind, and it’s very hard,” Persico said. “People say, ‘They baptized me. They had my wedding. They had my sacraments. I went to confession to them, and I trusted them. They were wonderful.’ And then, all of a sudden, people feel betrayed when they see a name. ‘I was duped. I trusted that man.’ ”

Persico said that sacraments are not affected if they have been handled by an accused priest.

He pointed to the Erie Diocese list of names with credible allegations of misconduct, according to diocesan standards, made public by the Erie Diocese in April – in particular, a pastor from Erie.

“An elderly man who was good friends with this priest, he was angry at this priest even though he was dead; he was angry,” Persico said.

“He said, ‘This was a man I trusted. He was a friend.’ That’s just the way people are going to react. I understand. It is hard for people to see that.”

The Erie Diocese is not the first to publish a list of this sort. But Persico is the first bishop to insist that a complete list of offenders be posted on a diocese website.

“And I said, ‘If we’re going to put out priests ... if we’re about the protection of children, then it goes across the board,’ ” he said.

“Whether you’re a priest, deacon, schoolteacher, social worker, man or woman, if you did something that was harmful to children, then you go on the list.”

The list includes one of his predecessors, former Erie Diocese Bishop Alfred M. Watson, now deceased.

“We’re probably the only diocese that put a bishop on the list,” Persico said. “We have enough evidence that he was told about a priest abusing (someone), and the person who told him was dismissed and later on that priest, abuser, was transferred to another assignment, where he continued to act out.”

And Persico added that this was a common practice.

“It’s unfortunate, and I’m not making excuses, but that again was the style in those days,” the bishop said.

Persico said he is committed to change, with two major goals — protecting children and transparency.

“I think what we’ve been trying to do here, in the diocese of Erie is to keep the information out there,” he said. “Keeping people informed and trying to do the right thing as far as protecting the children.”

So while Persico has felt a rush of emotions himself, he still has to tend to his flock.

And if they are to get past the shock, the bishop advises to “take it to God.”

“And come to the realization that priests aren’t gods,” he said. “They’re chosen from among men, with the same limitations and sins, and asked to serve the Lord in this way.”