NEWCASTLE (PA)
New Castle News
August 7, 2018
By Father Frank Almade
Father Frank D. Almade is pastor of the four parishes in New Castle (Mary Mother of Hope, St. Joseph the Worker, St. Vincent de Paul, St. Vitus).
Sometime in the next two weeks Pennsylvania attorney general Josh Shapiro will release a version of the grand jury report investigating clergy child sexual abuse in six Roman Catholic dioceses.
The grand jury was convened in April 2016 to review the incidents of clergy abuse in the dioceses of Allentown, Erie, Greensburg, Harrisburg, Pittsburgh and Scranton since 1948. Shapiro wanted to release the results in June, but was blocked by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court as it heard objections from some priests and others who claim their constitutional rights to a good reputation and the due process of law are being violated. On July 26, the Supreme Court ordered a “redacted” version of the report to be issued sometime between today and Aug. 14, with the names of those challenging the report deleted.
Any public relations consultant will tell organizations to keep their message short and simple. The response of the Catholic Church to this report is and must be complex. Let me offer three brief points of response to this report.
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