“Priests were raping little boys and little girls” – A long awaited report finds over 300 predator priests sexually abused over a 1,000 children in Pennsylvania.

The numbers are horrific, but not surprising. It is a well established fact that the Catholic Church has been and continues to be riddled with predatory clergy that rape and sexually abuse children, using their supposed spiritual authority as church leaders to intimidate and bully their victims into silence.

The Grand Jury Report notes:

Priests were raping little boys and girls, and the men of God who were responsible for them not only did nothing; they hid it all.

The Washington Post reports:

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Tuesday released a sweeping grand jury report on sex abuse in the Catholic Church, listing more than 300 accused clergy and detailing a “systematic” coverup effort by church leaders over 70 years.

The New York Post reports:

There were hundreds of “predator priests” sexually abusing more than 1,000 children in Pennsylvania for decades — all while being shielded by Roman Catholic Church leaders, according to a scathing grand jury report released Tuesday.

CBS News reports:

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 said more than 300 clergy committed the abuse over a period of decades.

The story is all too familiar: Catholic priests rape and sexually abuse children, and Catholic Church leaders cover up the abuse. This is standard operating procedure for the church, and has been for decades. In fact, the Catholic Church fought for months to stop the public release of this most recent grand jury report, repeating the pattern of covering up and ultimately enabling pedophile priests, and the rape and sexual abuse of children.

Friendly Atheist notes a couple of heartbreaking passages from the introduction to the Grand Jury Report:

Most of the victims were boys; but there were girls too. Some were teens; many were pre-pubescent. Some were manipulated with alcohol or pornography. Some were made to masturbate their assailants, or were groped by them. Some were raped orally, some vaginally, some anally. But all of them were brushed aside, in every part of the state, by church leaders who preferred to protect the abusers and their institution above all. … Priests were raping little boys and girls, and the men of God who were responsible for them not only did nothing; they hid it all. For decades. Monsignors, auxiliary bishops, bishops, archbishops, cardinals have mostly been protected; many, including some named in this report, have been promoted. Until that changes, we think it is too early to close the book on the Catholic Church sex scandal.

Bottom line: The Catholic Church is rotten to the core, and a long awaited grand jury report finds over 300 predator priests sexually abused over a 1,000 children in Pennsylvania.