Reports shed new light on church sex abuse
The nearly 900-page report landed like a grenade when Josh Shapiro, then the attorney general of Pennsylvania, delivered it on a stage in Harrisburg, Pa., five years ago. It detailed widespread sexual abuse of children in the Catholic Church throughout Pennsylvania, and a “sophisticated” cover-up by senior church officials. Victims of abuse and their families, sometimes visibly weeping, joined Shapiro on the stage.
More than 300 priests were found to have abused children, at least 1,000 of them, over the course of seven decades. The report reverberated at the highest levels of the church, with the Vatican expressing “shame and sorrow” over the findings. And it reached the pews, too: A Gallup poll the next year found more than one-third of Catholics in the United States were considering leaving the faith because of “recent news about sexual abuse of young people by priests.”
In the years since the Pennsylvania report was published, it has inspired some 20 other investigations into the Catholic Church by state attorneys general.
Now the results of those investigations are rolling out, refocusing attention on the sprawling abuse scandal and, in some cases, providing fresh details. The attorney general of Illinois, Kwame Raoul, released a report in May found more than 450 credibly accused child sex abusers in the Catholic Church in Illinois since 1950. Almost 2,000 minors were victims.
These reports have not led to many criminal prosecutions: Many of the accused have died, or statutes of limitations have expired.
But victims of clerical sexual abuse and their advocates say the reports have had a lasting impact in other ways. In some states, the reports have helped persuade legislators to extend time limits for victims to sue alleged abusers. And many victims say such public and official acknowledgment of what happened is a welcome step.
“People talk about this being about sex, or a more academic analysis describes it as being about power,” said Terence McKiernan, the president of BishopAccountability.org, an advocacy group. “But it’s also about information.”
Investigations have been concluded in seven states so far, and others are continuing, according to CHILD USAdvocacy, a group that supports stronger child abuse legislation.
The sheer numbers in the state reports published so far are staggering, including 163 perpetrators in Missouri, 97 in Florida and 188 in Kansas.
Bishops in the United States adopted new protocols in the early 2000s to crack down on abuse, including a range of “zero tolerance” policies. Historically, the church withheld information about priests who were sexually abusive, often moving them from parish to parish without informing people in the pews. The reports have pushed many dioceses to publish or update their own lists of credibly accused clergy members.