BALTIMORE (MD)
USA Today [McLean VA]
April 6, 2023
By Chris Kenning
While only one person has been indicted, advocates and victims’ groups predict it would bring more survivors forward and spark a wave of new civil lawsuits.
Cases of child sex abuse by clergy in the nation’s oldest Catholic archdioceses weren’t unknown.
But on Wednesday, a long-awaited report by the Maryland Attorney General spotlighted the depth of a crisis that spanned decades, finding a “staggering pervasiveness” of child sex abuse in the Archdiocese of Baltimore that victimized at least 600 children between the 1940s and 2002.
The report, which listed more than 150 Catholic priests and clergy members accused of “horrific and repeated” abuse – as well as attempts to protect accused clergy by the church hierarchy – came as Maryland’s legislature voted to end a statute of limitations for child sex abuse-related civil lawsuits.
While only one person has been indicted as a result of the investigation, advocates and victims’ groups on Thursday predicted that would bring more survivors forward and spark a wave of new civil lawsuits, while the report provided a necessary-if-painful reckoning.
“It’s a level of detail that is deeper, and as a result, affords us greater understanding” of the scope of the abuse, Terence McKiernan, head of the nonprofit Bishop Accountability, told USA TODAY.
How does Baltimore fit into the wider clergy abuse scandal?
The report in Baltimore came just over two decades since a 2002 Boston Globe investigation into clergy sex abuse sparked a scandal that engulfed archdioceses across the country and globe.
U.S. bishops enacted reforms in its wake, including stricter handling of abuse reports and permanent ministry bans. About 160 of 177 Roman Catholic Archdioceses, including Baltimore, have also released lists of accused priests and others, McKiernan said.
State attorneys general and grand juries have also conducted 19 similar investigations to the one in Baltimore, including one in 2018 of a group of dioceses in Pennsylvania that found at least 1,000 victims were abused by more than 300 priests over seven decades.
The clergy abuse crisis has since cost the Catholic Church an estimated $3 billion, driving some dioceses into bankruptcy.
Why did it take so long to come out?
To produce the nearly 500-page investigation, Maryland’s attorney general began its investigation in 2019, reviewing hundreds of thousands of documents including treatment reports, personnel records and transfer reports, as well as interviewing survivors and witnesses.
Because some documents were requested through a grand jury, the attorney general had to ask the court to allow the release of a report. Earlier this year, a judge allowed a redacted version to be released.
Some names of those accused of wrong
doing were redacted “because they were not known to be deceased at the time of the report and had not previously been listed as credibly accused by the Archdiocese of Baltimore or otherwise publicly identified,” the report said.
McKiernan of Bishop Accountability said there are also some names that appear on the report’s list of abusers that are not included on a list kept by the Archdiocese.
What are survivors and the Baltimore archdiocese saying?
Baltimore Archbishop William Lori apologized to victims in an online statement for a “reprehensible time in the history of this Archdiocese.” He said the organization had changed over the decades but that didn’t excuse “evil acts.”
Victims told news outlets the report brought validation, pain and a needed reckoning.
Jean Hargadon Wehner said she was abused in Baltimore as a teen by a priest who served as her Catholic high school’s counselor and chaplain, the Associated Press reported.
“I’m still angry,” she said,
What’s next?
Only one person has been indicted through the investigation: Neil Adleberg, 74, who was arrested last year and charged with rape and other counts. The case remains ongoing. Officials said he coached wrestling at a Catholic high school in the 1970s, then returned to the role for the 2014-2015 school year. The alleged abuse occurred in 2013 and 2014 but the victim was not a student of the school, officials said.
McKiernan said more charges aren’t likely. Some named in the report have died. But advocates will be pressing in court to release a more complete version of the report with names unredacted.
He expects more people to file civil suits when the statute of limitations for child sex abuse-related civil suits is signed by the governor. Currently, victims of child sex abuse in Maryland can’t sue after they turn 38. The bill would eliminate the age limit and allow for retroactive lawsuits.
A spokesperson for Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said he intends to sign the bill.
The Baltimore archdiocese says it has paid more than $13.2 million for care and compensation for 301 abuse victims since the 1980s, including $6.8 million toward 105 voluntary settlements.
“Many more survivors gonna come forward,” McKiernan said.
The Associated Press contributed reporting.
Chris Kenning is a national correspondent. Reach him at ckenning@usatoday.com and on Twitter @chris_kenning.