UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests
October 26, 2018
By Peter Isely
Today it was learned that the U.S. Department of Justice has put every US diocese under notice to “not destroy, discard, dispose of, delete, or alter any” documents related to the sexual abuse of children as they investigate “possible violations of federal law.” The letter, addressed to Daniel Cardinal DiNardo, President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, is significant because it covers not only the state of Pennsylvania, where the D.O.J. has officially launched a federal probe, but across the entire U.S.
One Pennsylvania bishop likely at the center of the current federal investigation is Bishop David Zubik of Pittsburgh. Zubik has a long history in Pittsburgh. According to the Pennsylvania Grand Jury Report, as Auxiliary Bishop and Vicar of Clergy under Archbishop Daniel Wuerl, Zubik was involved in covering up child sex abuse.
Zubik was promoted to bishop of the Green Bay diocese in 2003. While in Wisconsin, court records show that Zubik systematically destroyed nearly all criminal evidence of abuse and cover up from that diocese relating to at least 51 known sex offenders. In fact, Zubik’s reissued the order for the shredding the day before the Vatican announced he would leave Green Bay and return to run the Pittsburgh diocese in 2007. At the time SNAP issued a letter for a federal investigation of the document destruction.
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