Over 1,000 children molested

Report: Predator priests used religion to commit acts of abuse

HARRIsBURG: Roman Catholic priests across Pennsylvania used religious rituals, symbols of the faith and the threat of eternity in hell to groom, molest and rape children, a grand jury found, in what the state’s top prosecutor called the “weaponisation of faith”.

An 884page report on the statewide grand jury’s investigation, released on Tuesday, detailed how “predator priests” used the children’s own religious faith and trust in them as religious leaders to victimise and then silence them.

One priest tied up a victim with rope in the confessional in a “praying position,” the grand jury wrote.

When the victim refused to perform sex, the angered priest used a seveninch crucifix to sexually assault him, the report said.

Another victim recounted how a priest used a metal cross to beat him.

Josh Shapiro

At a parish rectory, the report said, four of the priests made a boy strip and pose as Jesus on the cross while they took photos.

“He stated that all of them giggled and stated that the pictures would be used as a reference for new religious statues for the parishes,” the jury wrote.

Two of those priests later did jail time for sexually assaulting two altar boys.

Another priest told a boy he was fondling that it was OK because he was “an instrument of God”.

Priests also found in the sacrament of confession the opportunity to perpetrate acts against children, the report said.

The investigation of six of Pennsylvania’s eight dioceses – Allentown, Erie, Greensburg, Harrisburg, Pittsburgh and Scranton – is the most extensive investigation of Catholic clergy abuse by any state, according to victims’ advocates.

More than 1,000 children – and possibly many more – were molested since the 1940s, the report said.

The dioceses represent about 1.7 million Catholics.

The Philadelphia Archdiocese and the JohnstownAltoona Diocese were not included in the probe because they had been the subject of three previous scathing grand jury investigations.

Diocese leaders on Tuesday expressed sorrow for the victims and unveiled, for the first time, a list of priests accused of some sort of sexual misconduct.

“Predators in every diocese weaponised the Catholic faith and used it as a tool of their abuse,” Attorney General Josh Shapiro said at a news conference on Tuesday unveiling the grand jury’s report, which documented allegations against 301 priests over seven decades.

Only two of the priests have been charged with crimes as a result of the grand jury investigation, though a number were prosecuted in years past.

Over 100 have died and many others have retired.

Church leaders say most of the offences occurred some time in the past and note that major reforms were adopted starting in 2002 to safeguard children. — AP

Predators in every diocese weaponised the Catholic faith and used it as a tool of their abuse.