More than 1,000 children molested by hundreds of Catholic priests in Pennsylvania, says report
More than 300 clergy members committed the abuse over decades, with senior church officials covering it up, according to a grand jury report
More than 1,000 children – and possibly many more – were molested by hundreds of Roman Catholic priests in six Pennsylvania dioceses, while senior church officials took steps to cover it up, according to a landmark grand jury report released Tuesday.
The grand jury said it believes the “real number” of abused children might be “in the thousands” since some records were lost and victims were afraid to come forward.
The report found that more than 300 members of the clergy committed the abuse over a period of decades.
Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro said that the two-year investigation found a systematic cover-up by senior church officials in Pennsylvania and at the Vatican.
“The cover-up was sophisticated. And all the while, shockingly, church leadership kept records of the abuse and the cover-up. These documents, from the dioceses’ own ‘Secret Archives’, formed the backbone of this investigation,” he said at a news conference in Harrisburg.