WASHINGTON - Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office, United States released a report revealing child sex abuse cases by more than 300 church priest in the region. According to reports, the immoral scandal with victims reaching more than 1,000 children was covered up by the Vatican.
The report was released on Tuesday US time. The local Attorney General's Office said it believed the actual number of children who were abused could reach thousands because some records were lost and victims were afraid to report. The report said more than 300 priests sexually abused for decades, starting in the mid-1950s.
Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro said a two-year investigation found a systematic closure by senior church officials in Pennsylvania and by the Vatican.
"Concealment is sophisticated. And so far, surprisingly, church leaders keep records of harassment and concealment. These documents, from the diocese of 'Secret Records' themselves, form the backbone of this investigation," he told a news conference in the city of Harrisburg.
The report blames Cardinal Donald Wuerl, the former bishop of Pittsburgh who now heads the Washington Archdiocese because what he said was part of his concealment of priest sexual abuse.
The Attorney General's Office investigated allegations of abuse in the diocese serving half of the 3.2 million Catholics in the region. The report echoes the findings of many previous church investigations across the country in descriptions of widespread sexual abuse by the priest and their hiding by church officials.
According to the Attorney General's Office, most of the victims of abuse were boys, but girls were also abused. Violence ranges from groping, masturbation to anal, oral and vaginal rape.
"Church officials routinely and deliberately describe the harassment as horseplay and wrestling. It is not such things. It is child sexual abuse, including rape," Shapiro said.
He also said that a priest had molested five sisters in one family. However, said Shapiro, the diocese made a secret agreement with the families of the victims.
Attorney General Shapiro added that Catholic bishops covered up child sexual abuse by church priests and assigned them repeatedly to various parishes. "They allowed priests to remain active for 40 years," he said.
"Children are taught that abuse is not only normal, but it is sacred," he said.
A report of around 900 pages by Attorney General Josh Shapiro will further tarnish the image of the Vatican.
Ahead of the report's release, the former bishop of Pittsburgh, who now heads Washington Archdiocese, Donald Wuerl, told CBS that the church was trying to free itself from cruel priests. According to him, the report would justify the reforms he supported in 2002 for that effect.
"We are very, very sorry this happened. And that is why we have taken steps to see that it does not continue," Cardinal Donald Wuerl said on Tuesday, Wednesday (08/15/2018).
"I'm not sure that there are any ways that you can guarantee that there will never be a failure in the life of the priest who goes into the future," Wuerl said. "You can't do more than just give your best to try to eradicate problems."
After Wuerl became archbishop in Washington in 2007, his diocese agreed to pay USD1.25 million as settlement money with 35 survivors of abuse.
The Vatican, which is called a cover-up of sex abuse scandals of hundreds of church priests in Pennsylvania, has not commented until now.
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