PENNSYLVANIA
PennLive

BY IVEY DEJESUS & CHRISTIAN ALEXANDERSEN

ALTOONA – The abuse was rampant, horrific, complicit and concealed, and even at times dismissed by law enforcement officials.

Those are some of the highlights that emerged from a grand jury report that found more than 50 priests and religious leaders of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown sexually molested hundreds of children over the course of four decades.

The findings of the two-year investigation, announced Tuesday in Blair County by Attorney General Kathleen Kane, provide a graphic account of the abuse of hundreds of boys and girls – the youngest of them 8 years old – dating to the 1950s.

Some of the most damning (and graphic) evidence included in the grand jury report:

The abuse was rampant.

More than 50 priests and religious leaders, including monsignors, were named and implicated among the reams of evidence culled from victim…