ATLANTA (GA)
CNN
October 23, 2018
By Daniel Burke
On Thursday we learned that federal prosecutors in Pennsylvania have taken a step long-sought by survivors of clergy sexual abuse: They launched a federal investigation into the Catholic Church.
As of October 23, all eight of Pennsylvania’s dioceses have told CNN that they have received subpoenas and will cooperate with the probe. Separately, the diocese of Buffalo, New York, also received a subpoena regarding clergy sexual abuse in late May, according to a source familiar with the subpoena.
While the scope of the federal investigation is still unclear, groups like the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, which first asked the Department of Justice to launch a probe in 2003, called Thursday’s news unprecedented.
There has never been a federal investigation of this size into the abuse of children by priests and the cover-up of those crimes by Catholic leaders, according to former law enforcement officials and experts on clergy misconduct in the United States.
“It is essential to involve federal resources to fully and finally get to the bottom of a scandal that has been going on for decades, and I say that both as a former federal prosecutor and a Catholic,” said David Hickton, who was US Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania from 2010-2017.
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