Feds launch church probe
Perv Pa. dioceses eyed
The Justice Department is investigating the sexualabuse allegations that have rocked the Roman Catholic Church in Pennsylvania.
Two people familiar with the probe told The Associated Press that prosecutors last week served subpoenas on dioceses across the state.
US Attorney William McSwain of Philadelphia is seeking evidence stashed away in files called “secret archives,” “historical archives” or “confidential files” and records related to the dioceses’ organizational charts, finances, insurance coverage, clergy assignments and treatment.
He also demanded a trove of other information from bishops — whether anyone in their ranks took children across state lines for illicit purposes, sent sexual messages on their phones or computers, instructed anyone not to contact police, reassigned suspected predators or used money or other assets in connection with the sex scandal.
The probe follows a bombshell grand-jury re- port in August that accused 301 “predator priests” of preying on more than a thousand children in Pennsylvania. The decades of abuse were allegedly covered up by church leaders.
Only two priests have been charged as a result of the grand-jury investigation because the statute of limitations had passed. Many of the other priests named in the 900-page report are dead.
Spokespersons for McSwain and the DOJ declined to comment.
Experts said federal prosecutors could bring charges under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO, which has been used to take down members of the Mafia.
“If you were going to file a criminal RICO or a civil RICO, the decision is: How much of the leadership do you have to capture?” wondered David Hickton, a former US attorney in western Pennsylvania. “The bishops themselves are captains of ships, but the admiral is the pope.”
Hickton considered criminal or civil charges against the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese in 2016, but left before the investigation was completed. The diocese settled with his successor, signing a decree that agreed to certain reforms.
Pope Francis admitted that church leaders “showed no care for the little ones,” in a letter blasting “the atrocities.”
“With shame and repentance, we acknowledge . . . that we were not where we should have been, that we did not act in a timely manner, realizing the magnitude and the gravity of the damage done to so many lives,” the pope wrote in August.
The pontiff has called a meeting of the world’s leading bishops in February to address the scandal.