PENNSYLVANIA
PennLive
WRITTEN BY IVEY DEJESUS AND 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 eight years old – dating back to the 1950s.
Below are 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 testimony and documents seized from the diocese.
Investigators found that priests molested children in church sacristies, rectories, basements and confessionals; schools, including St. Patrick’s in Newry, orphanages, including St. Mary’s in Cresson; boy’s locker rooms, retreat cabins, hospitals, including the Altoona Hospital; St. Francis Seminary; the children’s homes, cars.
One priest, William Rosensteel, would take the boys on trips to Canada and Pittsburgh. The priest would pick one boy to sleep in his bed and engage in “passionate deep throat tongue kisses” and fondle their genitals, according to the grand jury report.
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