Missouri to probe abuse; N.M. next?

Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley said last week that his office will investigate allegations of sexual abuse by clergy in the St. Louis area, launching an independent inquiry in a region that is home to more than a half-million Catholics.

This review makes Missouri the first state to publicly announce such an inquiry after the searing Pennsylvania grand jury report released this month that documented a wave of abuses and coverups spanning decades and involving more than 300 Catholic priests.

It remains unclear whether other states have launched new efforts to investigate alleged abuses after the Pennsylvania report. While other states may be conducting or considering beginning investigations, none has said so publicly. The Washington Post reached out to the offices of attorneys general in 49 states and the District of Columbia after the Pennsylvania report was released to survey their responses. Authorities in most of these offices either said that they could not comment on potential investigations or that their offices lacked the authority to immediately act and investigate local cases.

Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro told NPR after the grand jury report that he has had “many private conversations … with other state attorneys general and prosecutors in other states who have expressed interest in doing the kind of work we did in Pennsylvania.”

David Carl, a spokesman for New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas, said that Balderas “is very troubled by” the report’s depictions of “a broader conspiracy to hide priests or cover up sexual abuse resulting in victimization of New Mexicans.” (The Pennsylvania report named several priests who had served in New Mexico and notes at least one instance of a cleric who “admitted to the indecent touching of [a] boy” in New Mexico.)

Carl said his office was working with Shapiro “to identify gaps in legal protections and will increase efforts to prioritize strengthening laws and reporting requirements aimed at preventing these large scale tragedies moving forward.”

The Archdiocese of St. Louis said Thursday that it welcomed the review in Missouri and that the examination was being conducted at its request. St. Louis Archbishop Robert Carlson said he knew the public was calling on the attorney general’s office to investigate the Catholic Church and that “we have nothing to hide,” adding that he was inviting Hawley to review the church’s files on anyone who has been accused of sexual abuse.

The archdiocese says it serves more than 511,000 Catholics, or about 1 in 5 people in the St. Louis region.