Grand jury report paints ugly picture in PA.PHILADELPHIA -- A grand jury has released a scathing report on the extent of the sexual abuse that took place in the Philadelphia archdiocese since the 1950s after reviewing allegations against 169 priests. While none of the crimes can be prosecuted due to the statutes of limitation, the report names Cardinals John Krol John Joseph Cardinal Krol, JCL (October 26, 1910—March 3, 1996) was a Polish-American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He was the Archbishop of Philadelphia from 1961 to 1988, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1967. and Anthony Bevilacqua Anthony Joseph Cardinal Bevilacqua, DD, JCD, JD (born June 17, 1923 in Brooklyn, New York) is an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He was the Bishop of Pittsburgh from 1983 to 1987 and Archbishop of Philadelphia from 1987 to 2003, and was raised to the cardinalate in , former heads of the archdiocese, as perpetrators of a vast cover-up of the abuse, according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. the Associated Press Associated Press: see news agency. Associated Press (AP) Cooperative news agency, the oldest and largest in the U.S. and long the largest in the world. . Cardinal Justin Rigali, the current archbishop, was criticized by many of his priests for public statements in defense of the archdiocese. One official statement calls the grand jury "a sword to attack the church." At a private meeting between Rigali and more than 300 archdiocesan priests on September 27, one priest told the cardinal that he was "greatly disappointed in the archdiocese's weak and deplorable" defense of Krol and Bevilacqua, The Philadelphia Inquirer Philadelphia Inquirer Morning newspaper, long one of the most influential dailies in the eastern U.S. Founded in 1847 as the Pennsylvania Inquirer, it took its present name c. 1860. It was a strong supporter of the Union in the American Civil War. reports. On October 4, Rigali wrote a pastoral letter to the archdiocese saying, "This is certainly a time of purification for the Catholic Church in Philadelphia. It must be, also, a time of reparation Compensation for an injury; redress for a wrong inflicted. The losing countries in a war often must pay damages to the victors for the economic harm that the losing countries inflicted during wartime. These damages are commonly called military reparations. for sins and a time for renewal." In related news, after years of legal disputes, documents related to clergy sex abuse in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles have been released to the public, revealing a pattern of placing accused priests in therapy and then assigning them to other parishes. The documents are related to more than 500 court cases alleging abuse against 228 priests. As explained by the Associated Press, L.A. released summaries of its personnel files, while in Boston in 2002, "the files a judge unsealed contained doctors' reports [and] memos from dioscesan officials about meetings with distraught parents." The lead plaintiffs' attorney called it a "first step" but added, "Until the [entire] files are made public, we're not going to be satisfied." |
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