PENNSYLVANIA
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

By Peter Smith / PIttsburgh Post-Gazette

The Catholic Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown agreed with federal prosecutors to formal policies Monday to detect and prevent sexual abuse by priests.

The memorandum of understanding, while lacking the enforcement power of a court order, commits the diocese to completely replacing the board it uses to review allegations and to a greater reliance on experts.

The diocese was subject of a withering state grand jury report a year ago this week. That report criticized what it termed a pattern of covering up sexual abuse of hundreds of minors by more than 50 priests and others associated with the church, mostly taking place in the last half of the 20th century.

But this agreement resulted from a parallel investigation by federal prosecutors that resulted in a diocesan priest, the Rev. Joseph Maurizio, being sentenced last year for sexually abusing two boys during…