State Supreme Court Should Order Release of Grand Jury Report on Child Sexual Abuse in Catholic Dioceses
Lancaster Online
THE ISSUE Those seeking to keep under wraps a grand jury report on child sexual abuse allegations in the Roman Catholic Church in Pennsylvania have until this afternoon to respond to a request to unseal it from The Associated Press, LNP and five other media organizations. As the AP reported, the deadline was set by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, which put a stay on the release of the grand jury report last month. The grand jury’s supervising judge signaled his intention to file the report publicly, but its release was thwarted by the Supreme Court, which said it had to review legal challenges filed by individuals cited in the report. The grand jury investigation, which began in 2016, covered six of the state’s eight Catholic dioceses (grand jury reports on the Philadelphia and Altoona-Johnstown dioceses were released previously). Metaphors of darkness and light are frequently invoked by religious leaders, in religious writing, in the Bible itself. Sin is believed to dwell in the darkness. Redemption lies in the light. The metaphor applies here, too: The grand jury report detailing sexual abuse and cover-ups of that abuse in Pennsylvania Catholic dioceses needs to be made public without further delay. That way lies light and healing for the victims of abuse. And they should be the priority here — at long last, they should be the priority. The only people served by keeping the report sealed are the alleged offenders and those who enabled them. And they’ve already been given too much time, and much too much slack, to elude accountability. Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro took legal action Monday to press for the report's release. He said in a statement that the “people of Pennsylvania have a right to see the report, know who is attempting to block its release and why, and to hear the voices of the victims of sexual abuse within the Church.” We strongly agree. The grand jury report encompasses handling of child sexual abuse reports in the Catholic dioceses of Allentown, Erie, Greensburg, Harrisburg, Pittsburgh and Scranton. The Diocese of Harrisburg includes Lancaster County’s 18 Catholic parishes. Child sexual abuse has been the Catholic Church’s original and ongoing sin. This isn’t because the Catholic Church is the only religious organization in which such abuse has been a problem — because it’s not — but because of the egregious way church officials sought to cover it up and shield transgressors from civil and criminal consequences. The Catholic Church in the United States has made significant strides since the scale of its mishandling of child sexual abuse reports first came to light. It instituted a zero tolerance policy for abusers in 2002, and launched “youth protection” programs in American dioceses. But for years, children were harmed by people they and their parents trusted in the church, and their stories of horrific and life-altering victimization have gone untold. That must be the case no longer. Judge Norman A. Krumenacker III — the grand jury’s supervising judge — issued a ruling in June denying petitions from individuals seeking to challenge the report’s findings. He noted that the report is “the culmination of two years of investigation” into child sexual abuse allegations, failures to make mandatory reports to civil authorities, “acts endangering the welfare of children, and obstruction of justice by individuals associated with the Roman Catholic Church, local public officials, and community leaders.” We are struggling to understand why the state Supreme Court has delayed a report that victim advocates told the AP may be “the biggest and most exhaustive ever by a U.S. state.” As LNP staff writer Jeff Hawkes reported in May, the grand jury investigation already has “led to the arrest of an Oil City, Venango County, priest accused of sexually abusing at least two boys” (in the Diocese of Erie). According to the grand jury presentment made public in May, one child was just about 8 years old when the Rev. David Poulson began molesting him. The alleged victim said Poulson sexually assaulted him more than 20 times in the rectories of the churches where he served as an altar boy at Mass, and in other instances at the priest’s hunting camp. The abuse is alleged to have occurred on a biweekly basis from 2002 to 2010. The grand jury presentment says Poulson required the child to confess the sexual abuse — to him. This would be a perversion of the Catholic sacrament of confession, and a truly twisted way to wield the power of the priesthood over a vulnerable child. The full grand jury report is likely to contain similarly harrowing accounts from other victims. It will be painful reading not just for Catholics but for anyone who cares about the welfare of children. But that’s the very reason it ought to be released. The abuse of children at the hands of the church needs to be fully conveyed and understood. We need to know the scope of the harm that was done, to ensure that such harm isn’t visited on any other children. Silencing a victim sends the message that his or her pain is less significant than that of others, and that the victim bears some responsibility for the abuse. Shame dwells in darkness, too. Making this report public will ensure that the responsibility for the abuse is placed squarely where it belongs — on the shoulders of those who perpetrated it and those who enabled it. Those who were victimized deserve to see this report released. We laud the intensive efforts of Attorney General Shapiro to fight for its release. And we urge the state Supreme Court to conduct with haste its review of the petitions seeking to block the report's release — and to rule in favor of the victims of child sexual abuse in Pennsylvania’s Catholic parishes. They already have waited far too long for the truth of what was done to them to see the light of day.
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