Inquiry on abuse by priests expanded

U.S. prosecutors look at alleged abuse beyond Pennsylvania

PHILADELPHIA —U.S. prosecutors pursuing an inquiry into sex abuse by priests and cover-ups by the Catholic Church in Pennsylvania have turned their attention to bishops outside the state, signaling a wider federal investigation than initially reported.

In a letter sent this month, Philadelphia-based investigators instructed the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, its staff, and nearly 200 bishops across the country to preserve personnel records and documents related to sex abuse that could be of interest to the investigation.

A conference spokesperson declined to describe what types of records the prosecutors sought to preserve, but conference General Counsel Anthony R. Picarello Jr. said the organization had complied.

“We have transmitted the U.S. attorney’s letter (to our staff) at his request, and in the spirit of cooperation with law enforcement,” he said in a statement.

In three weeks, the U.S. Conference and its members are set to convene in Baltimore after months of developments that have plunged the church into crisis over its handling of sex abuse claims.

In the three months, Cardinal Theodore McCarrick of Washington and his successor, Donald Wuerl, were deposed over abuse-related complaints and a Pennsylvania grand jury report that implicated six of the state’s eight Catholic dioceses in decades of concealment, and inspired similar investigations in at least a dozen other states.

But until this month, the bishops had largely escaped federal scrutiny.