Two American bishops spent four decades covering up sexual abuse of hundreds of children at the hands of 50 Catholic priests and clerics in Pennsylvania, a grand jury revealed on Tuesday (March 1).

The 147-page report came out two days after Hollywood movie Spotlight won an Oscar for best picture for chronicling a newspaper investigation into sexual abuse in the Catholic Church and institutional efforts to cover up the crimes.

The report uncovered a “secret archive” of damning evidence stuffed into boxes and filing cabinets in a church office in the central Pennsylvania diocese of Altoona-Johnstown, which is home to around 90,000 Catholics.

Handwritten notes, letters and documents detail children being abused by members of the church, and show that Bishop James Hogan, who died in 2005, and his successor Bishop Joseph Adamec, 80, knew of the allegations and intervened to stop predatory priests from being arrested, the grand jury found.

The bishops’ conduct endangered thousands of children and allowed predators to abuse even more victims, said Pennsylvania state attorney general Kathleen Kane, whose office made the report public.

“The heinous crimes these children endured are absolutely unconscionable,” said Ms Kane. “These predators desecrated a sacred trust and preyed upon their victims in the very places where they should have felt most safe.

“Just as troubling is the cover-up perpetrated by clergy leaders that allowed this abuse to continue for decades,” she added.

None of the criminal acts detailed in the report can be prosecuted because alleged abusers have died, victims are too traumatised to testify and the statute of limitations on prosecuting cases has expired, prosecutors said.

Between 5,700 and 10,000 Catholic priests have been accused of sexual abuse in the United States, but only a few hundred have been tried, convicted, and sentenced for their crimes, according to the watchdog Bishop Accountability.

The “secret archive” was uncovered by investigators acting on a search warrant last August — just one month before Pope Francis visited Pennsylvania as part of his inaugural visit to the United States. He has vowed to root out abuse and said following his return from America that bishops and officials who covered up sex crimes were themselves guilty.
Source :AFP