WASHINGTON (DC)
Anthracite Unite

September 5, 2018

by Katie Breslin

It was with a pit in my stomach that I opened the grand jury findings from the case against 300 priests in Pennsylvania for child abuse. I scrolled to the section that said Dioceses of Scranton and found a list of the names of priests in the grand jury report. My heart sank lower when I saw letterhead from the church where I was baptized. The grand jury investigation identified 59 priests in the Diocese of Scranton alone in this report. While these revelations were painful, they weren’t shocking – just a continued feeling of disappointment in an institution that had been a big part of my childhood.

Like many others in the anthracite coal region, the Catholic Church was the cornerstone of my upbringing. From the beautiful churches located all over the region to the rich history of…