Zubik wants to see jury report before its release
Roman Catholic Bishop David Zubik said he’s not opposed to the imminent release of a grand jury report into sexual abuse in the Diocese of Pittsburgh but wants an opportunity to “read, review and respond” to it before its public release.
“We are not opposed to the release of the report,” Bishop Zubik said Friday in an interview. “We have cooperated fully” with the investigation. “We just want to be able to have an opportunity to read, review and respond to it.”
The 40th statewide grand jury has for nearly two years been
investigating sexual abuse in Pittsburgh’s and five other Pennsylvania Catholic dioceses as far back as the 1940s.
Three Catholic bishops this week — from Erie, Allentown and Scranton — said they would not contest the release of the report, while two others, in Greensburg and Harrisburg, made similar statements but emphasized the need for due process.
The Diocese of Pittsburgh until Friday did not directly say whether it would mount any sort of legal challenge to the release, and Bishop Zubik said he did not know what legal means might be involved to get an opportunity to see the report.
To date, the diocese has not seen any of the report, he said.
There is precedent for people who are named in a grand jury report, but not criminally charged, to get an advance look at the findings.
In 2016, when the attorney general’s office released an earlier grand jury report into the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown, that release was accompanied by written responses by some of those named in the report. In the responses, priests denied allegations of sexual abuse, while retired Bishop Joseph Adamec rebutted the report for faulting his oversight of sexually abusive priests.
Joe Grace, spokesman for state Attorney General Josh Shapiro, said in a statement Friday: “We look forward to actions from the dioceses of Harrisburg, Pittsburgh and Greensburg which match their words.”
He reiterated Mr. Shapiro’s statement earlier in the week commending bishops Joseph Bambera of Scranton, Alfred Schlert of Allentown and Lawrence Persico of Erie “for not mounting a challenge that would silence the voices of victims of sexual abuse within the Catholic Church.”
The dioceses’ public statements began after Bishop Persico met with Mr. Shapiro on Wednesday and subsequently said he would “forgo any legal challenges to the grand jury and its work.”
The Scranton and Allentown dioceses each then said they “will not challenge the release of the report.”
The Diocese of Harrisburg said Thursday it was considering “all our options.” Elaborating on Friday, it said it “wants to be clear that we strongly support the release of the grand jury report. However, we are also concerned about due process rights. It’s important that we get this report right.”
The Greensburg diocese said it supports the release “with due process.”
The Greensburg and Harrisburg dioceses, meanwhile, have been challenging an oath of secrecy required of attorneys representing witnesses before the grand jury. They say the oath, pledging secrecy on all matters pertaining to the grand jury, impedes their ability to counsel their clients. The judge overseeing the grand jury denied their claim, which is now before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court on appeal.
Separately on Friday, the Diocese of Erie added six names to the list of priests and others credibly accused of sexual abuse or failure to prevent it while associated with the church in its 13 northwestern Pennsylvania counties. That raises the number to 57 on the list, first posted in April after the diocese did its own internal investigation parallel to the grand jury probe.