Shapiro: Vatican knew about cover-up
HARRISBURG — Vatican officials knew of efforts to cover up sexual abuse by priests in Pennsylvania, state Attorney General Josh Shapiro said Tuesday during appearances on two national news shows.
“We have evidence that the Vatican had knowledge of the cover-up,” he said on NBC’s “Today.” Later in the interview, he said that he “can’t speak specifically to Pope Francis.”
Mr. Shapiro reiterated those comments during an interview later with the Philadelphia Inquirer/Daily News and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Mr. Shapiro said he was referring to portions of the grand jury report that said diocesan officials contacted the Vatican about troublesome priests, often as part of an effort to get them removed from ministry.
There are a couple of dozen references to the Vatican in the grand jury report on clergy sexual abuse, along with the attached responses from people criticized within the document.
Many of those mention concerned requests from Pennsylvania church officials to the Vatican that an abusive priest be removed from the priesthood after an allegation of sexual abuse or rape.
Procedurally, the pope must decide to remove a priest.
The report notes that the grand jury reviewed copies of some of those requests during its two-year investigation. “Often called ‘The Acts’ of the subject priest, the summaries were often the most detailed documents within Diocesan records and contained decades of long-held secrets only disclosed in an effort finally to remove an offending priest from the priesthood,” according to the report.
It was unclear how much detail those summaries included about the dioceses’ prior responses to the allegations.
The attorney general would not elaborate beyond the report, saying grand jury secrecy prevented him from providing more detail about the evidence his office has involving those communications between the dioceses and the Vatican.
Multiple church leaders in their own responses to the report denied a cover-up. Some noted that the process for defrocking a priest is lengthy and, in some instances, bishops suspended priests from active ministry while the requests were pending. Among those who have criticized the report’s fairness or accuracy is Cardinal Donald Wuerl, currently archbishop of Washington, D.C.; he had previously served as bishop of the Diocese of Pittsburgh.
Mr. Shapiro, during a separate interview on “CBS This Morning,” said, “I believe that statements made by bishops in Pennsylvania, by Cardinal Wuerl specifically, to deny this, does further the cover-up. It covers up the cover-up.”
The attorney general also had strong words for Pittsburgh Bishop David Zubik, who has said that some priests named in the report remain in ministry because the church could not substantiate the allegations against them and that the church does not operate today as it did several decades ago.
“He’s not telling the truth, and the church’s own documents prove that,” Mr. Shapiro said on “CBS This Morning.”
Bishop Zubik on Tuesday stood by his previous positions.
“The Diocese of Pittsburgh is not the church described in the report,” Bishop Zubik said in a statement. “That means that
the report ignores 30 years of reforms and actions to protect children and identify and remove abusing priests from ministry.”
The bishop said the diocese has asked a national expert to help review its policies for responding to child sex abuse allegations and suggest ways ways to improve them.
The attorney general’s remarks came days after revelations that a former Vatican ambassador to the U.S. alleged in a letter that Pope Francis knew of abuse accusations against former Washington archbishop Cardinal Theodore McCarrick prior to his resignation this summer.
Mr. Shapiro’s remarks echoed some statements he made earlier this month, when a redacted version of the grand jury report was released. The grand jury found that more than 1,000 children were raped or otherwise sexually abused by 301 “predator priests” over 70 years. The sweeping report covered six of the state’s eight Roman Catholic dioceses and called for changes to state law.
The state Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments in September over whether the full report should be released. A group of current and former clergy members asked the high court to block the release of portions pertaining to them, arguing that those sections are inaccurate or unfairly tarnish their reputations.
Law enforcement continues to receive calls from people reporting abuse by religious figures. Mr. Shapiro said the Clergy Abuse Hotline run by his office has received more than 700 calls in the roughly two weeks since the report’s release.
A Pittsburgh attorney Tuesday started the process of suing the Diocese of Pittsburgh, Cardinal Wuerl and Bishop Zubik on behalf of a man who said he was sexually abused by a priest as a child. The lawsuit, filed by attorney Alan Perer on behalf of James Saitta, is believed to be the first filed against the Pittsburgh Diocese in the wake of the grand jury report.
The lawsuit claims that the Rev. John S. Hoehl sexually abused Mr. Saitta numerous times between 1979 and 1984 at Quigley Catholic High School in Baden and at a cabin in Somerset. The diocese knew that Father Hoehl was an admitted sex offender and received more than 20 complaints against him, mostly around the time Mr. Saitta was being abused, according to a news release announcing the lawsuit.
Mr. Perer said he hopes the lawsuit goes before the state Supreme Court so it can make a ruling on the 30year statute of limitations. Because information about Father Hoehl had been concealed, Mr. Perer said, the court should extend the statute of limitations.
“Had he known in 1986 that the priest admitted to being a pedophile … my client and his family would have been in a position to bring a case against [Father Hoehl and the diocese],” Mr. Perer said.
Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. said Tuesday that his office had received 174 referrals from the Pittsburgh Diocese since he took office in 1998. Of those, he said, 95 percent either involved a deceased perpetrator or an expired statute of limitations. The others involved people who would not identify themselves to investigators or said they did not want to pursue a case.
Since the report’s release, the diocese has referred fewer than a half-dozen new complaints to the DA’s office, Mr. Zappala said.
Again, the cases date to the 1950s, ‘60s and ‘70s and he expects them to fall outside the statute of limitations. Still, he said, his prosecutors are reviewing them.
“I’m not sure what we’re accomplishing, other than to give the victims a voice,” Mr. Zappala said. “I’m more concerned about the people who present as victims rather than prosecuting cases.
“If the evidence supports it, we’ll pursue it.”