In Troyer’s report, due out this fall, victims won’t be identified, but names of priests with substantiated allegations of abuse will be, Weiser said.

Denver’s Archbishop Samuel Aquila said there are no active priests in Colorado under “active investigation.” Father Randy Dollins, who works under Aquila and also attended the news conference, told CPR News last September that there had been no new allegations of sexual abuse on a minor in Colorado since 2002.

Aquila acknowledged the process in the coming months will include “painful moments.”

“The damage inflicted upon young people and their families by sexual abuse especially when it’s committed by a trusted person like a priest is profound,” Aquila said. “We pray that this will at least begin the healing process. We also acknowledge that the bright light of transparency needs to shine on the church’s history related to child abuse.”

The investigation is paid for, in part, by the Denver Archdiocese and in part by a private fund of cash raised by former Attorney General Cynthia Coffman, who started this effort last year in wake of a sprawling investigation in 2018 by the Pennsylvania attorney general that found hundreds of priests were protected by church leaders over decades.

Aquila noted that the part of the investigation paid for by the church will not come from ministries or charities, but “reserves and assets.”

Weiser and Coffman both said they probed how they could conduct a Pennsylvania-style investigation into past clerical abuse in Colorado — and determined state’s jurisdictional laws does not give the authority to the attorney general to conduct a grand jury.

Coffman said she still felt a nagging obligation to protect Coloradans.

“My senior staff and I began examining alternatives for uncovering previously undisclosed abuse involving Catholic priests in our state,” Coffman said. “We worked with colleagues … across the country including Pennsylvania … to compare approaches.”