Allentown Diocese mailing letter on grand jury sex abuse investigation to parishioners

By Tim Darragh
Morning Call
July 13, 2018

http://www.mcall.com/news/breaking/mc-nws-diocese-schlert-grand-jury-20180713-story.html

Bishop Alfred Schlert at his installation as bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Allentown last year. Photo by APRIL GAMIZ

The Allentown Diocese is mailing more than 80,000 Catholic households an update of its view on the state grand jury report that is looking into the sexual abuse of children by priests and a reiteration of its zero-tolerance policy.

The diocese sent the letter from Bishop Alfred Schlert to the news media Friday.

“The bishop thought it was important to communicate to the people of the diocese during this time when the grand jury report was expected,” said diocesan spokesman Matt Kerr.

In the letter, Schlert says he wants the report reviewing decades of sexual abuse in six dioceses — including Allentown — released as soon as possible.

A grand jury spent two years hearing testimony about abuse by priests and efforts to cover it up in the Allentown, Erie, Greensburg, Harrisburg, Pittsburth and Scranton dioceses. The report it generated is now being held up by a state Supreme Court order, after some unidentified priests argued it violates their due process rights.

Schlert reiterated earlier statements that the Allentown Diocese is not among those objecting to the report’s release, despite the report’s findings that “will be difficult to hear.” Around two dozen Allentown Diocese priests have been accused of sexually abusing children in the past few decades, according to court records and Morning Call files.

The diocese, Schlert wrote, “has done absolutely nothing to delay or block the report, or to support anyone who is trying to do so.

“In fact, my sincere wish is that the report is released as soon as possible.”

Schlert said he is praying for victims that they will be on a path to healing.

The delay of the release of the report, which Attorney General Josh Shapiro had planned for late June, has been heartbreaking for victims and survivors of abuse, he wrote. The information needs to come out so that sexual abuse in the church and society in general is eliminated, Schlert said.

He acknowledged that the church “did not always deal with abuse and abusers in the way it does now.”

In the past, some sexually abusive priests were not removed but moved to different parishes, and the diocese paid to settle lawsuits with victims. In some cases, allegations were made after the statute of limitations on charging an alleged offender had passed.

Now the church’s policy is to notify law enforcement immediately of allegations of abuse and remove the alleged offending priest from ministry. The diocese most recently removed Monsignor Francis Nave, the pastor of Sacred Heart Church in Bath, in June after it learned of a lawsuit accusing Nave of sexually abusing a teenager during online counseling sessions.

“Victims and survivors are heard and cared for, perpetrators are held accountable, and children are protected,” Schlert wrote.

Whenever the grand jury report is released, Schlert said the diocese would use the information to strengthen efforts to protect children.

The letter does not indicate what action the diocese would take if the report is suppressed or delayed indefinitely. Kerr said the diocese expects it will be released.

Unlike the other dioceses in the report, the Erie Diocese did not wait for publication to name all of those credibly accused of abuse or of abetting it over a period of decades. Bishop Lawrence Persico in April released a list of 51 clergy members or lay people who were credibly accused of crimes or cover-ups.