PENNSYLVANIA
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
By Peter Smith / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
In the past 11 years, grand juries in Pennsylvania have investigated two Roman Catholic dioceses and issued reports with the same narrative line:
Dozens of priests molested hundreds of children across the latter decades of the 20th century as their bishops and other higher-ups ignored or downplayed credible evidence of their offenses and even kept predators in ministry assignments with access to children.
That’s what grand juries reported about the Archdiocese of Philadelphia in 2005 and 2011 and the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown last month.
Because those investigations largely delved far into the past, they yielded thick reports but few prosecutions due to the statute of limitations.
They did, however, yield a rarity: Four of the five Roman Catholic officials ever charged in the United States for covering up the sexual abuse of a subordinate, as opposed to committing the abuse themselves, have been accused as a result of these grand jury probes.
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