Clergy Claim False Accusations in Grand Jury Report

By Peter Smith
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
July 5, 2018

http://www.post-gazette.com/news/faith-religion/2018/07/05/Clergy-sexual-abuse-Catholic-priests-grand-jury-attorney-general-Josh-Shapiro-Diocese-of-Pittsburgh-Greensburg-Harrisburg-Allentown-Erie-Scranton/stories/201807050134

Catholic-priests-grand-jury-attorney-general-Josh-Shapiro-Diocese-of-Pittsburgh-Greensburg-Harrisburg-Allentown-Erie-Scranton/stories/201807050134

Attorneys for more than two dozen people, including current and former clergy members, are challenging the release of a mammoth report by a statewide grand jury of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, claiming Thursday the report leaves them “wrongly accused and falsely implicated.”

The challengers — who also include the executrix for a deceased person named by the grand jury as an offender within the Diocese of Pittsburgh — denounced the report as riddled with “inaccuracies and falsities” and alleged that the supervising judge of the 40th statewide grand jury failed in his duty to ensure the report was based on at least a “preponderance of evidence.”

Attorney General Josh Shapiro defended the report’s integrity in a statement later Thursday.

“The report is accurate and these individuals have had the chance to respond, and their responses will be included in the final grand jury report,” he said. “This legal filing is nothing more than a desperate attempt to stop the public from learning the truth about their abhorrent conduct.”