HARRISBURG — Vatican officials knew of efforts to cover up sexual abuse by priests in Pennsylvania, Attorney General Josh Shapiro said during appearances Tuesday on two national news shows.
“We have evidence that the Vatican had knowledge of the cover-up,” he said during an appearance on NBC’s “Today.” He said later in the interview that he “can’t speak specifically to Pope Francis.”
Mr. Shapiro reiterated those comments during an interview later with the Philadelphia Inquirer/Daily News and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Mr. Shapiro said he was referring to portions of the grand jury report that said diocesan officials contacted the Vatican about troublesome priests, often as part of an effort to get them removed from ministry.
There are a couple of dozen references to the Vatican in the grand jury report on clergy sexual abuse, along with the attached responses from people criticized within the document.
Many of those mentions concerned requests from Pennsylvania church officials to the Vatican that an abusive priest be removed from the priesthood following an allegation of sexual abuse or rape. Procedurally, the pope has to decide to remove a priest.
“Child rape in 1970 is the same as child rape in 2018. It is never acceptable, and it is never OK to cover it up.”
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) August 28, 2018
Watch @savannahguthrie & @craigmelvin’s full interview w/ @JoshShapiroPA about the Catholic Church sex abuse scandal pic.twitter.com/6NnySehYEK
The report notes that the grand jury reviewed copies of some of those requests during its two-year investigation. “Often called ‘The Acts’ of the subject priest, the summaries were often the most detailed documents within Diocesan records and contained decades of long-held secrets only disclosed in an effort finally to remove an offending priest from the priesthood,” according to the report.
It was unclear how much detail those summaries included about the dioceses’ prior responses to the allegations.
The attorney general would not elaborate beyond the report, saying grand jury secrecy prevented him from providing more detail about the evidence his office has involving those communications between the dioceses and the Vatican.
Multiple church leaders in their own responses to the report denied a cover-up. Some noted that the process for defrocking a priest is lengthy and, in some instances, bishops suspended priests from active ministry while the requests were pending. Among those who have criticized the report’s fairness or accuracy is Cardinal Donald Wuerl, currently archbishop of Washington; he had previously served as bishop of the Diocese of Pittsburgh.
Mr. Shapiro, during a separate interview on “CBS This Morning,” said, “I believe that statements made by bishops in Pennsylvania, by Cardinal Wuerl specifically, to deny this, does further the cover-up. It covers up the cover-up.”
The attorney general also had strong words for Pittsburgh Bishop David Zubik, who has said that some priests named in the report remain in ministry because the church could not substantiate the allegations against them and that the church does not operate today as it did several decades ago.
“He’s not telling the truth, and the church’s own documents prove that,” Mr. Shapiro said on “CBS This Morning.”
"The Diocese of Pittsburgh is not the church described in the report," Zubik said in a statement. "That means that the report ignores 30 years of reforms and actions to protect children and identify and remove abusing priests from ministry."
The bishop said the diocese has asked a national expert to help review its policies for responding to child sex abuse allegations and suggest ways ways to improve them.
The attorney general’s remarks came days after revelations that a former Vatican ambassador to the U.S. alleged in a letter that Pope Francis knew of abuse accusations against former Washington archbishop Cardinal Theodore McCarrick prior to his resignation this summer.
“Do you have evidence that the pope had knowledge or participated in a cover up with regards to the Pennsylvania diocese?” @craigmelvin asks @JoshShapiroPA pic.twitter.com/lqy3X0TID0
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) August 28, 2018
Mr. Shapiro’s remarks echoed some statements he made earlier this month, when a redacted version of the grand jury report was released. The grand jury found that more than 1,000 children were raped or otherwise sexually abused by 301 “predator priests” over 70 years. The sweeping report covered six of the state’s eight Roman Catholic dioceses and called for changes to state law.
The state Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments in September over whether the full report should be released. A group of current and former clergy members asked the high court to block the release of portions pertaining to them, arguing that those sections are inaccurate or unfairly tarnish their reputations.
Meantime, law enforcement continues to receive calls from people reporting abuse by religious figures. Mr. Shapiro said the Clergy Abuse Hotline run by his office has received more than 700 calls in the roughly two weeks since the report’s release.
A Pittsburgh attorney Tuesday started the process of suing the Diocese of Pittsburgh, Cardinal Wuerl and Bishop Zubik on behalf of a man who said he was sexually abused by a priest as a child. The lawsuit, filed in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court by attorney Alan Perer on behalf of James Saitta, is believed to be the first filed against the Pittsburgh diocese in the wake of the grand jury report.
The complaint, which Mr. Perer said he anticipates filing within two weeks, will claim that the Rev. John S. Hoehl sexually abused Mr. Saitta numerous times between 1979 and 1984 at Quigley Catholic High School in Baden and at a cabin in Somerset, according to a press release. The diocese knew that Father Hoehl was an admitted sex offender and received more than 20 complaints against him, mostly around the time Mr. Saitta was being abused, the press release said.
Mr. Perer said he’s hoping the lawsuit goes before the state Supreme Court so it can make a ruling on the 30-year statute of limitations. Because information about Father Hoehl had been concealed, Mr. Perer said, the court should extend the statue of limitations.
“Had he known in 1986 that the priest admitted to being a pedophile ... my client and his family would have been in a position to bring a case against [Father Hoehl and the diocese],” Mr. Perer said.
While the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s policy is to not identify victims or alleged victims of sexual assault, in this case Mr. Perer said his client was willing to be named.
Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. said on Tuesday that his office had received 174 referrals from the Pittsburgh diocese since he took office in 1998. Of those, he said, 95 percent either involved a deceased perpetrator or an expired statute of limitations. The other instances involved people who would not identify themselves to investigators or said they did not want to pursue a case.
Since the release of the grand jury report, the diocese has referred fewer than a half-dozen new complaints to the DA’s office, Mr. Zappala said.
Again, though, the cases date to the 1950s, ‘60s and ‘70s, and he expects them to fall outside the statute of limitations. Still, Mr. Zappala said, his prosecutors are reviewing them.
“I’m not sure what we’re accomplishing, other than to give the victims a voice,” he said. “I’m more concerned about the people who present as victims rather than prosecuting cases.
“If the evidence supports it, we’ll pursue it,” Mr. Zappala said.
Liz Navratil: lnavratil@post-gazette.com, 717-787-2141 or on Twitter @LizNavratil. Harrisburg Bureau reporter Angela Couloumbis and Post-Gazette staff writers Paula Reed Ward and Andrew Goldstein contributed to this report.
Correction, posted Aug. 29, 2018: This story has been updated to correct the source of information about sexual assault allegations against the Rev. John S. Hoehl.
First Published: August 28, 2018, 2:03 p.m.
