GREENSBORO (NC)
The Carolinian
November 8, 2018
Luciano Gonzalez
The Catholic Church in the United States is facing an unprecedented scandal in the months since the Pennsylvania grand jury announced the names of hundreds of priests who have abused thousands of children. Currently, at least 15 states and the District of Columbia have publicly launched or are publicly declaring that they’re preparing to launch investigations to determine the full scale of the abuse Catholic clergy subjected victims to.
Organizations such as the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) have reported that these investigations, both the types of investigations and the scales of the investigations, are unprecedented. Each of the investigations will differ because of varying local laws that have to be taken into account, as well as the fact that each state’s Attorney General has different levels of power and access to different resources.
One of the consequences of the original Pennsylvania report that is responsible for this national conversation about abuse in the Catholic Church is that reports of sexual abuse are up all over the country. In the days following the release of the original report, more than 400 phone calls were made to the Pennsylvania hotline dedicated to reporting Catholic priest abuse of children. Other groups have acted to reveal the scope of the abuse scandal, such as a law firm that released a report naming more than 200 priests in California who were accused of sexual misconduct.
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