PENNSYLVANIA
Reading Eagle
By Liam Migdail-Smith
The way Catholic leaders respond to allegations of sexual abuse of children by clergy or lay people has changed since the mid-2000s, local church leaders say.
And they said, the culture and process victims faced when confronting church leaders about the abuse in the past is not the same as today.
In the Philadelphia Archdiocese, which includes the Pottstown area, all reports of abuse are now immediately forwarded to law enforcement, spokesman Kenneth A. Gavin said.
At the same time, the victim is put in touch with a services coordinator who can help line up church funding for therapy, medication and related transportation and child care costs, he said.
And after the legal investigation is complete, the church conducts its own, separate canon-law review, he said.
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