'Men of God hid it all': Church protected more than 300 'predator priests' in Pa., grand jury says

Show Caption Hide Caption How Pennsylvania came to release a list of 300 Catholic priests accused of sexual abuse The attorney general's report comes after years of state and local law enforcement uncovering cases of sexual abuse within the Catholic church.

Church leaders protected more than 300 "predator priests" in six Roman Catholic dioceses across Pennsylvania for decades because they were more interested in safeguarding the church and the abusers than tending to their victims, says a scathing grand jury report released Tuesday.

More than 1,000 young victims were identifiable from the church's own records, the report says.

“The main thing was not to help children, but to avoid scandal,” the report says. "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 redacted report details the latest in a decades-long series of claims of abuse and protection leveled against the church across the nation and around the world. Last month, Pope Francis accepted the resignation of Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, a prominent Vatican official, amid claims of sexual abuse almost 40 years ago.

The Pennsylvania report accuses church leaders in the state of discouraging victims from reporting the abuse, which allegedly spanned more than 60 years.

“Several diocesan administrators, including the bishops, often dissuaded victims from reporting abuse to police, pressured law enforcement to terminate or avoid an investigation or conducted their own deficient, biased investigation without reporting crimes against children to the proper authorities,” the report says.

Some of the accused have died, and statute of limitations laws prevent many others from facing criminal charges. State Attorney General Josh Shapiro said the statute of limitations was a key tool in the "systematic coverup" by senior church officials in Pennsylvania and at the Vatican.

"The longer they covered it up, the less chance that law enforcement could prosecute these predators because the statute of limitations would run," Shapiro said at a news conference in Harrisburg. "Almost every instance of child abuse (the grand jury) found was too old to be prosecuted."

The grand jury did issue presentments against two priests. One pleaded guilty last month to charges that he sexually abused a 10-year-old boy more than 20 years ago. Another has been charged with felony child sex crimes.

The grand jury compiled the information during a two-year investigation. Shapiro called the report an "honest and comprehensive accounting of widespread sexual abuse" in the dioceses of Allentown, Erie, Greensburg, Harrisburg, Pittsburgh and Scranton that minister to more than 1.7 million Catholics.

More: Harrisburg Catholic diocese names priests accused of sexual abuse

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Last month, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ordered release of the document but named a county judge to negotiate how much would be withheld from public view. Some current and former priests who deny the allegations fought to have their names redacted.

Cardinal Donald Wuerl, Pittsburgh's bishop for 18 years until 2006, is among those named in the report as failing to shut down abusers. Wuerl, who serves as the archbishop of Washington, sent a letter to Washington priests defending his efforts on behalf of victims and claiming a "zero tolerance policy" for clergy abuse, the Associated Press reported.

“It moved me not simply to address these acts, but to be fully engaged, to meet with survivors and their families, and to do what I could to bring them comfort and try to begin a process for healing,” Wuerl wrote.

Last week, the Erie Diocese released a list of more than 60 people "credibly accused" of actions that the diocese said disqualified them from working with children. Bishop Lawrence Persico said in a letter this week preparing parishioners for the grand jury report that it was "shocking to read the graphic details" of the abuse claims.

"The most important thing I want to do at this moment is to express my sorrow to the victims of sexual abuse that occurred within the Diocese of Erie," Persico wrote. "They have experienced cruel behavior by the very individuals who should have had the greatest interest in protecting them."

This month, the Harrisburg Diocese identified 71 priests and other members of the church who had been accused of child sex abuse.

"That conduct has left a legacy of pain and sorrow that is still being felt," Harrisburg Bishop Ronald Gainer wrote in a letter to the diocese. "I apologize for these actions."

Gainer announced sweeping changes to confidentiality policies and stripped from any place of honor in the diocese the names of bishops and others associated with the abuses.

Previous grand jury investigations found widespread abuse in the Philadelphia Archdiocese and Altoona-Johnstown Diocese.

Sexual abuse scandals have rocked the Roman Catholic Church for decades, not just in the USA but throughout the world. Courts and prosecutors have filed indictments and sued for damages to try to hold the church accountable for the abuse crisis.

Several high-ranking clergy members, including the most senior Roman Catholic cleric in Australia, have gone to prison or been ordered to serve home detention sentences.

The scandals have hit the church hard financially, and many dioceses have paid millions in compensation to victims. In June, the Roman Catholic Church of Rochester divulged that it had paid $1.6 million to at least 20 children who had been sexually abused by 24 priests since 1950.

Eighteen U.S. dioceses and religious orders in the USA have filed for bankruptcy protection during the crisis, according to the website BishopAccountability.org, which tracks sexual abuse cases.

A 19th, the Diocese of St. Cloud in Minnesota, announced plans in February to file for bankruptcy protection. The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis said in late May that it agreed to pay a $210 million settlement to 450 victims of clergy sexual abuse, one of the largest payouts to date in the USA over the scandal.