WASHINGTON (DC)
Catholic News Service
January 29, 2019
By Dennis Sadowski
Upon first hearing in August of the findings of a Pennsylvania grand jury about how Catholic clergy abused children and young people, veteran journalist Peter Steinfels was, like a lot other people – shocked and appalled.
Soon, Steinfels told Catholic News Service, he wanted to learn more about the grand jurors’ conclusion that the claims of “all” the victims were systematically brushed aside and covered up by church officials.
A former religion reporter at The New York Times and former editor of Commonweal magazine, Steinfels had little disagreement with most of the documentation on the abuse allegations.
Still, questions persisted in his mind. He wondered what prompted the grand jury to conclude that six of Pennsylvania’s eight Catholic dioceses acted “in virtual lockstep” to cover up abuse allegations and dismiss alleged victims over the course of seven decades beginning in 1947.
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