PENNSYLVANIA
Lancaster Online

Maureen Powers | Special to LNP

They say timing is everything.

In view of “Spotlight” just receiving an Academy Award for best picture, last week’s grand jury report on two Catholic bishops’ cover-up of rampant child sexual abuse by 50-plus priests over 40 years in the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese couldn’t be more timely.

(“Spotlight” is the story of The Boston Globe’s investigation of massive child sexual abuse and its cover-up by Cardinal Law in the Archdiocese of Boston.)

I grew up in the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese, and I can say unequivocally from personal experience that child sexual abuse by clergy existed more than 50 years ago. I was sexually molested by a prominent priest of that diocese between the ages of 12 and 14, and I can shed light on some ways in which these acts are kept secret from a victim/survivor’s standpoint.

Of course, there was the…