PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer
Inquirer Editorial
Three weeks into a likely months-long landmark clergy sex-abuse trial, a Philadelphia jury already has seen the clear outlines of an alleged cover-up by Archdiocese of Philadelphia officials as far up as Cardinal Anthony J. Bevilacqua.
One priest wasn’t removed from the ministry until he had amassed 18 assault allegations against him.
A Havertown pastor recounted how he was kept in the dark about a newly assigned priest who had written a sexually graphic love letter to a grade-school boy.
An admitted abusive priest was advised by superiors to stay “low key” around churches where his victims might spot him.
It took the archdiocese a decade to respond to one official request for records. Meanwhile, pretrial disclosures revealed that years earlier, Bevilacqua directed aides to shred a memo identifying 35 suspected predator priests.
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