Grand jury report could name 90 ‘offenders’ in local diocese

Filing by clergyman’s lawyer reveals details

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

HARRISBURG — A grand jury report detailing Catholic clergy sexual abuse in the state includes information about more than 90 “offenders,” and a court document released Friday strongly suggests that could be the number for the Pittsburgh diocese alone.

If confirmed, that would be the largest number of potential sexual abusers ever publicly disclosed in the Diocese of Pittsburgh, which covers six counties in Western Pennsylvania. The diocese reported in 2004 that 45 priests and deacons who served between 1950 and 2002 — just under 2 percent of the total — faced credible accusations that they sexually abused a minor. The diocese has never publicly released its full list of offenders.

New details about the investigation of the Pittsburgh diocese emerged amid a flurry of redacted filings released Friday, as attorneys for roughly two dozen current and former clergy members appeal to the state Supreme Court, asking the justices to block or alter portions of the more than 800-page report from public release. Those attorneys argue that their clients’ rights to their reputations are being unjustly violated and, in some cases, that the report contains “gross mischaracterizations and falsities.”

State Attorney General Josh Shapiro’s office, which oversaw the nearly two-year-long investigation, filed its response in court Friday, and a redacted version of his