For
over 40 years (1940s-1980s) hundreds of Pennsylvania children were sexually
abused by more than 50 Roman Catholic priests –and the shocking crimes were covered
up by bishops. Priests took advantage of
these children who felt safe with them. The abusers committed their crimes in
campsites, confessionals, in an orphanage and in the cathedral. Children were
molested, raped and fated to become adults with lifelong psychological trauma.
The
Attorney General of Pennsylvania, #KathleenKane said that the 37th Statewide Investigating
Grand jury 147-page report found that former Altoona-Johnstown Diocese Bishop
James Hogan and his successor Joseph Adamec protected pedophile priests. Hogan
covered up allegations by transferring offending priests, including one who was
sent to a boys’ school. Adamec or his
staff threatened some victims with excommunication and generally worked harder
to hide or settle allegations of abuse than to discipline the priests accused.
"The
diocese will not apologize or take responsibility for its dark history,"
the report said.
Evidence
for the report came from a secret diocesan archive opened through a search
warrant. Hogan died in 2005 and Adamec
cited possible self-incrimination in refusing to testify before the grand jury.
The
investigation found that local law enforcement dodged investigating the abuses
in the church and that the diocese actually helped select a police chief and
fire chief. Kane’s investigation was
helped by the FBI’s Critical Incident Response Group and the Behavioral
Analysis Unit.
Attorney
Kane called the release of the report a “day of reckoning” for abusers and
their enablers. The sad fact is that there were no cases filed against the attackers
because the statute of limitations (two years) ran out -- making prosecution
impossible. Victims are too traumatized
to testify or remember what happened to them until it is too late. The grand jury is recommending the complete
removal of statutes for future child sexual abuse criminal cases and opening a
window of time allowing civil suits for past abuse, as some other states have
done. Of the victims, Kane said: "Their souls were killed as children.
They weren't out playing baseball; they were trying to avoid priests."
The
current bishop, Mark Bartchak, recently suspended a few pedophile priests but
the grand jury said it remains "concerned the purge of predators is taking
too long."
Parishioners
Pay for the “Menu”
American
dioceses have paid nearly $4 billion since 1950 to settle claims with victims. We know where this money came from – the
pockets of parishioners who thought they were helping with God’s works.
The
report found that there was a "payout chart" where victims would
receive amounts of money from the church according to the crime committed – a
practice found in other dioceses. Is
this a menu for the abusers? Victims fondled over their clothes were to be paid
$10,000 to $25,000; fondled under their clothes or subjected to masturbation,
$15,000 to $40,000; subjected to forced oral sex, $25,000 to $75,000; subjected
to forced sodomy or intercourse, $50,000 to $175,000. Can anyone put a price on a child’s life?
An
$8 million settlement was awarded to 88 former students of Franciscan Brother
Stephen Baker, who abused catholic high
school students from 1992 to 2001. Baker killed himself in 2013 after abuse
settlements were publicized. A
molestation lawsuit against since-defrocked priest Francis Luddy tried in 1994
led to a verdict of more than $2 million in damages and an appeals court
finding that Hogan's oversight of pedophile priests had been
"outrageous."
How
many children could have been saved from a life of misery if these bishops
would have acted like the “men of God” that they pretend to be? These child
predators could have been criminally prosecuted and locked away. What the grand jury report calls, “soul
murder” could have been prevented.
“These
findings are both staggering and sobering,” said the grand jury report. “Over
many years hundreds of children have fallen victim to child predators wrapped
in the authority and integrity of an honorable faith. As wolves disguised as
the shepherds themselves — these men stole the innocence of children by
sexually preying upon the most innocent and vulnerable .... ”
Bishops:
“took actions that further endangered children as they placed their desire to
avoid public scandal over the well-being of innocent children,” the report
said. “Priests were returned to ministry with full knowledge they were child
predators.”
Just
like cases in many other dioceses: these bishops tried to discredit the victims
– in one case, trying to get the gynecological records of a survivor. They threatened victims, tried to get
lawsuits against known criminal clergy dismissed – even after the priest
admitted molesting children. There are
so many cases that are known and how many are buried so deep that they haven’t
yet surfaced?
In
2002, according to the grand jury, Rev.
Martin Cingle had groped the genitals of a then-15-year-old boy while sleeping
next to the boy on a trip he had taken him on. Bishop Adamec met with Father
Cingle, who denied remembering such an event. Adamec sent the priest for what
the grand jury said was an insufficient psychological review which was
inconclusive. Adamec returned the priest to ministry, where he remained until
the grand jury, under threat of perjury got Cingle to admit his guilt. It wasn’t until the Pennsylvania Deputy
Attorney General Dye wrote to the current Bishop Bartchak, that the bishop
agreed to remove Cingle from the ministry.
What was Cingle out there doing for over a decade?
The
U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in Dallas ruled in 2002, that any priest should
be removed from ministry who committed even a single act of abuse. All talk and worse than no action: the grand
jury report said that as late as 2005, the Altoona-Johnstown diocese was hiring
private investigators to look for ways to undercut the credibility of an accuser. It was the #BostonGlobe investigations,
recently dramatized in the Oscar-winning movie #Spotlight, that provoked the
bishops to act like they were doing something to stop the abuse. The tide was
rising and the Globe investigation led to revelations of similar cover-ups
worldwide. The tide of truth will keep
rising until it washes away the agents of evil.
The
grand jury is recommending the complete removal of statutes for future child
sexual abuse criminal cases and opening a window of time allowing civil suits
for past abuse, as some other states have done. Bishop cover up of lying, incurable
pedophile priests or some similar mockery of justice has or is happening
everywhere the church reaches with its tentacles into the lives of innocent
children. Who will stop it? We will – like the victims in #Spotlight we will
tell the media the truth and hope they are brave enough to reveal it to the
world.
