Attorneys expand lawsuit seeking abuse information from Pa. dioceses

They’re adding new plaintiffs from the Philadelphia, Altoona-Johnstown, Greensburg and Harrisburg dioceses.

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For more information about Tony May, click here. Katie Meyer was WITF’s Capitol Bureau Chief from 2016-2020. While at WITF, she covered all things state politics for public radio stations throughout Pennsylvania. Katie came to Harrisburg by way of New York City, where she worked at Fordham University’s public radio station, WFUV, as an anchor, general assignment reporter, and co-host of an original podcast. A 2016 graduate of Fordham, she earned several awards for her work at WFUV, including four 2016 Gracies.Katie is a native New Yorker, though she originally hails from Troy, a little farther up the Hudson River. She can attest that the bagels are still pretty good there.

(Harrisburg) — A lawsuit seeking to make Pennsylvania’s Roman Catholic dioceses disclose information on predatory priests is getting bigger.

Plaintiffs say they think the dioceses aren’t complying with the commonwealth’s mandatory reporting laws, and that’s putting children in danger.

Originally, the suit only included abuse survivors and other plaintiffs from the Pittsburgh diocese.

But last month, Allegheny County Common Pleas Court Judge Christine Ward said while she would let the case proceed in Pittsburgh, she would dismiss it in the other seven dioceses unless attorneys added plaintiffs from those areas.

Ward gave the attorneys 30 days.

Now, they say plaintiffs from the Philadelphia, Altoona-Johnstown, Greensburg and Harrisburg dioceses are on board with the suit, and they may add others from the last three—Erie, Scranton and Allentown.

The suit is one of many inspired by 2018’s grand jury report that alleged more than 300 Pennsylvania clergy abused children for decades.

It asks dioceses to publicly release all the information they gave the grand jury, among other things.