The state grand jury report on child sexual abuse by at least 50 priests over decades in the Catholic Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown is a heartbreaking litany of crimes and cover-ups. Justice will not be achieved in individual cases due to the statute of limitations and the deaths of some of the perpetrators. While the number of offenders may be small in proportion to the number of priests overall, the enormity of the crime is staggering.
“This is not an indictment of the Catholic religion or the Catholic Church,” declares the introduction, noting that many grand jury members and investigators from the attorney general’s office are devout Catholics. “This is a finding of fact and an effort at transparency — not to slander a religion but to expose the truth about the men who hijacked it for their own grotesque desires.”
The leader of the diocese since 2011, Bishop Mark L. Bartchak, was commended by the grand jury for his quick actions in removing accused child predators from ministry, as well as his cooperation with the investigation. The two previous leaders, Bishop Joseph Adamec and Bishop James Hogan (who died in 2005), came in for withering criticism. Under their watch, “Priests were returned to ministry with full knowledge they were child predators” as part of the effort to avoid public scandal. Through a lawyer, Bishop Adamec, now retired, has rebutted the conclusions of the grand jury, asserting it did not obtain complete and “exculpatory information.”
With powerful understatement, the grand jury “acknowledges that this report details instances of law enforcement officials falling short of their oaths.” As the Johnstown Tribune-Democrat reported in 2003, “the conspiracy of silence was often aided and abetted by police and judges, who wanted the church to handle its problems internally.”
From the Vatican on down, the Catholic Church has at this point acknowledged and atoned for the many sins of abusive clergy and complicit leaders. The failure of local law enforcement, in Altoona and beyond, is another shameful dimension to this human tragedy.
First Published: March 4, 2016, 5:00 a.m.