Pennsylvania Supreme Court approves release of 900-page grand jury report about Catholic clergy sex abuse

WASHINGTON (DC)
Washington Post

July 27, 2018

By Michelle Boorstein

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2018/07/27/pennsylvania-supreme-court-oks-release-of-900-page-grand-jury-report-about-catholic-clergy-sex-abuse/

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled Friday that a landmark 900-page grand jury report about child sex abuse by Catholic clergy should be released as soon as Aug. 8 — but with some of the 300 predators’ names temporarily redacted.

A court battle has been underway for weeks over questions of fairness and transparency, with prosecutors and abuse advocates saying the results of an 18-month investigation must be released for justice to be done. Ten news organizations, including the Morning Call in Allentown, Pa., and The Washington Post, joined in a brief urging the release of the grand jury report.

But people named in the report said that they have not had adequate opportunity to protect their reputations and could be severely harmed as a result.

The grand jury report comes after several other explosive ones in Pennsylvania targeting institutional sex abuse — in other Catholic dioceses and at Pennsylvania State, among other places — and is expected to be “sobering” and “rather graphic,” Erie Bishop Lawrence Persico said this month.

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