Some current and former clergy named in the report went to court to prevent its release, arguing it violated their constitutional rights. The state Supreme Court said the public had a right to see it, but ruled the names of priests and others who objected to the findings would be blacked out pending a September hearing on their claims.
Twenty of the grand jurors said they objected to “any attempts to censor, alter, redact or amend” the report.
The report took two years to compile based on victim testimony and a half-million internal documents subpoenaed from the church.
“These documents, from the diocese’s own ‘secret archives,’ formed the backbone of this investigation,” said Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro, adding that internal communications from the church corroborated victim testimonies and illustrated the extent of the cover-up, which reached the Vatican.
“The report of the Pennsylvania grand jury again illustrates the pain of those who have been victims of the crime of sexual abuse by individual members of our clergy, and by those who shielded abusers and so facilitated an evil that continued for years or even decades,” Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and Bishop Timothy L. Doherty, chair of the bishops’ Committee for the Protection of Children and Young People, said in a statement.
“As a body of bishops, we are shamed by and sorry for the sins and omissions by Catholic priests and Catholic bishops.”
