A Reckoning on Clergy Sex Abuse

By Josh Shapiro
Post Gazette
January 24, 2019

https://www.post-gazette.com/opinion/Op-Ed/2019/01/25/A-reckoning-on-clergy-sex-abuse/stories/201901250034

The release of a report by a statewide grand jury detailing the sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests in Pennsylvania, and an institutional cover-up across six dioceses stretching all the way to the Vatican, has sparked a movement and reckoning across our country.

Since the grand jury released its 884-page report in August, my office’s Clergy Abuse Hotline has received more than 1,450 calls. Our agents return every call, and a number of calls are of interest to us and have sparked new investigations.

While the report identified 301 predator priests, the criminal statute of limitations in Pennsylvania prevented my prosecutors from charging all but two offenders. The two priests we did charge, Father John Sweeney of the Diocese of Westmoreland, and Father David Poulson of the Diocese of Erie, both received significant prison sentences and are behind bars.

While not every victim of clergy abuse received the same sense of closure as Sweeney’s and Poulson’s victims, it has mattered greatly to many survivors that they have been able to share their truths and feel that people finally heard them.

I’ve heard that from victims in Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and every corner of our commonwealth.