BALTIMORE (MD)
PBS NewsHour [Arlington VA]
April 6, 2023
By Anthony Brown and Geoff Bennett
More than 150 Catholic priests and others associated with the Archdiocese of Baltimore sexually abused over 600 children, according to the Maryland Attorney General’s Office. A long-awaited report revealed the horrific scope of abuse and cover-ups spanning some eight decades. Geoff Bennett discussed the findings with Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown.
Geoff Bennett: More than 150 Catholic priests and others associated with the Archdiocese of Baltimore sexually abused over 600 children, often escaping accountability. That’s according to a long-awaited report from the Maryland attorney general’s office, revealing the horrific scope of abuse spanning some eight decades. The report accuses church leaders of decades of cover-ups and paints a damning portrait of the archdiocese, which is the oldest Roman Catholic diocese in the country. Anthony Brown is the attorney general of Maryland, and joins us now. Thank you for being with us. Your investigation found that over 600 young people from preschoolers to young adults suffered sexual abuse and physical torture in some cases by clergy members from the 1940s through 2002. That’s the year at which this investigation ended. Clergy in some cases preyed on children who were recovering in hospitals. Give us a sense of the full picture of depravity and evil that your investigation uncovered in the church.
Anthony Brown, Maryland Attorney General: That’s a tall order, in that we interview, as you mentioned, close to 600 survivors, many other witnesses. We reviewed hundreds of thousands of documents that were produced to us through the grand jury subpoena by the Archdiocese of Baltimore. And what we saw and we tried to detail in the report was pervasive abuse by priests, seminarians, deacons and other employees of the archdiocese and this intentional effort by the Catholic Church hierarchy to conceal this abuse. There was physical abuse and mental abuse. There was sexual abuse and rape. And this occurred between the abusers, who had positions of power and authority, and some of the most vulnerable people in our society, children, children who are devoted to the Catholic Church, and yet were abused over and over again by the very people who are entrusted to care for these children.
Geoff Bennett: On the matter of accountability, only one person has been indicted through this investigation, as I understand it. Many of the abusers are now dead. But in the report, at least 10 abusers’ names are redacted. There are other Catholic officials whose names are redacted in the report. What accounts for that? Why are these people’s names, their identities shielded from public view, if the focus is on transparency and accountability?
Anthony Brown: Where the information that is included in the report came to us solely through the grand jury process, the subpoenaed documents, and the documents that are subpoena through a grand jury are confidential and can only be released upon order of a court. So the Circuit Court for the city of Baltimore has instructed us to redact certain names, to give those individuals notice and an opportunity to review the materials, the context in which their name would be disclosed. And then they have an opportunity to file objections to the court. And I can assure you that our office will be filing an argument to disclose those names if the individuals resist that disclosure. But, ultimately, it will be the decision of the Circuit Court of the city of Baltimore.
Geoff Bennett: In preparing to speak with you, Mr. Attorney General, we spoke with David Lorenz. He’s the Maryland state director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, also known as SNAP. And he said that this report gives him some sense of relief. David Lorenz, Maryland Director, Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests: Vindication is too weak a word, and I don’t have a better word. It is — it is a release. It’s a vindication. It’s being able to take that off and hand it to someone else and say, this doesn’t — this — the weight of this abuse doesn’t belong on me, doesn’t belong on my shoulders. It belongs on someone else, and it belongs at the foot of the Catholic Church.
Geoff Bennett: I’m sure you have heard a similar sentiment from many of the survivors that you have spoken with. Mr. Lorenz wants to know when your office plans to investigate the two other diocese that include parts of Maryland, the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., and the Diocese of Wilmington, Delaware, which covers part of the Eastern Shore.
Anthony Brown: And I thank Mr. Lorenz for his advocacy on behalf of survivors. I had the privilege to meet with the survivors yesterday in my office before we publicly released this report. And it was clear to me that, for many, if not most of the survivors, yesterday was truly a day of reckoning and public accounting, a detailed report of what they had to endure at the time of the abuse and throughout their lives since. I tried to convey to them that we’re listening, we believe them, and will continue to be there for them. So, four years ago, when the investigation was initiated by my predecessor, Attorney General Brian Frosh of the Archdiocese of Baltimore, the office of attorney general also initiated investigations of the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., and the Diocese of Wilmington, Delaware. Those investigations are ongoing. We have issued subpoenas. We have not sat idle. My predecessor, I think, made an important and sound decision to focus on the Archdiocese of Baltimore, so that we could complete that report and make it public as soon as possible. And now we will continue the efforts to investigate the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., and the Diocese of Wilmington, Delaware.
Geoff Bennett: Well, when it comes to holding the archdiocese accountable, priests who abused children were often known to the archdiocese, yet little was done to stop them. There’s some reporting by The Baltimore Sun. And they found that, all told, in some cases, the church spent more money on services for abusive priests than they did for the actual victims, mental health services and so on. What’s a proper remedy for those who are looking for accountability from the Archdiocese of Baltimore?
Anthony Brown: It is clear that the church valued the denials of the abusers over the claims, the complaints, the credibility of the abuse. There’s no doubt about that. We, in our report, laid out two recommendations, one of which was for the General Assembly to consider eliminating the statute of limitations in civil actions brought by survivors against the abusers and against the Archdiocese of Baltimore. Actually, the way that the legislation was passed just an hour after we released our report, the General Assembly did pass that legislation. And, in all child abuse cases, there’s no longer a statute of limitations in the state of Maryland. That’s a good step forward. It will give those who are — were abused, the survivors, an opportunity to bring civil actions against their abusers, assuming that they’re still alive, and the Catholic Church.
Geoff Bennett: Anthony Brown is the attorney general for the state of Maryland.Thanks for being with us, sir.
Anthony Brown: Thank you.