PENNSYLVANIA
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
By Bill Zlatos
Published: Wednesday, May 7, 2014
Five members of a religious order may have abused as many as 12 students of the former North Catholic High School in the second-biggest sexual abuse scandal at one school in the Pittsburgh diocese, officials confirmed Wednesday.
The Rev. Ronald Lengwin, spokesman for the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh, said the diocese views the allegations “with a great deal of sadness for those who have been victimized.”
The Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh said one graduate contacted church officials about Marianist (Society of Mary) Brother Bernard Hartman. The 74-year-old clergyman is awaiting trial in Australia on charges he molested four students at a Catholic school there in the 1970s and ’80s.
The diocese sent a letter on April 24 alerting 9,000 alumni of North Catholic High School that Hartman, a former science teacher there, is being prosecuted for child-sex crimes in Australia. As a result, the diocese was contacted about new allegations against four other brothers from the same religious order — three of whom are known to be dead.
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