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BALTIMORE (AP) — More than 150 Catholic priests and others associated with the Archdiocese of Baltimore have sexually abused more than 600 children, often with impunity, in the long-awaited 80 The leader of the decades-long cover-up, according to a state report released Wednesday that revealed the extent of years of abuse and blamed the church.
The report paints the plight of the Archdiocese, the oldest Roman Catholic diocese in the country and spanning much of Maryland. Between 1964 and 2004 he had 11 abusers live and work in St. He Mark Parish, several parishes, schools, and congregations, including the Diocese, had multiple abusers at the same time. I was there. Another priest was allowed to feign hepatitis treatment and make other excuses to avoid facing allegations of abuse.
The Maryland Attorney General’s office has released findings from years of research during Holy Week, considered the holiest time in Christianity before Easter, and the death toll could be much higher. The report was redacted to protect confidential grand jury material, meaning the identities of some of the accused clerics were removed.
“The staggering prevalence of abuse itself highlights the responsibility of church hierarchy,” the report said. “The sheer number of abusers and victims, the depravity of abusers’ conduct, and the frequency with which known abusers have been given the opportunity to continue preying on children is staggering.”
The disclosure of the redacted findings marks a significant development in the ongoing legal battle surrounding their release Evidence from parishes across the country has grown as many similar revelations have rocked the Catholic Church in recent years.
Baltimore Archbishop William Lori apologized to the victims in a statement posted online, saying the report “details a reprehensible time in the history of this archdiocese.
“It is difficult for most people to imagine that such evil deeds could actually happen,” Lori said. “For victims and survivors around the world, they know the hard truth: These evil deeds really happened.”
Also on Wednesday, the state legislature passed a bill that ends the statute of limitations on abuse-related civil lawsuits and sent it to Gov. Wes Moore, who said he supports it. The Archdiocese of Baltimore says he has paid more than $13.2 million in care and compensation for 301 abuse victims since the 1980s.
Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown, who took office in January, said the investigation found “pervasive, harmful and persistent abuse.” State investigators said he launched an investigation in 2019. They reviewed over 100,000 pages of his documents dating back to the 1940s and interviewed hundreds of victims and witnesses.
Abuse recalled as ‘life imprisonment’
Victims said the report was a public statement they could not wait to take into account the shameful accusations the church has faced over the decades.
Jean Hagadon Wenner says she was abused in Baltimore as a teenager By A. Joseph Maskell, a priest who served as her Catholic high school counselor and pastor. She reported her abuse to church authorities in the early ’90s when her traumatic memories finally surfaced, some two decades after being repeatedly raped.
“I expected them to do the right thing in 1992,” she told reporters Wednesday. “I’m still angry.”
According to reports, Maskell abused at least 39 victims. He denied his allegations before his death in 2001 and was never criminally charged.The Associated Press does not typically name victims of abuse, but Wenner noted the issue. spoke publicly to draw
Kurt Rupprecht, who also experienced abuse as a child, said he was in his late 40s when he pieced together memories of the trauma. This realization brought him some relief as he explained, but was overwhelmed with anger and disbelief.
Ruprecht said his abuser was assigned to Wilmington Parish, which serves several counties on Maryland’s east coast.
“We are here to speak the truth and we will not stop,” he said after the press conference. “We deal with this every day. It’s our life sentence.”
The Priest Abuse Survivor Network, known as SNAP, noted that the report names more abusers than were made public by archdiocese officials.The organization asked the archbishop to explain the discrepancy. I was.
Other investigations are underway, including the Archdiocese of Washington, which includes parts of Maryland, and the Diocese of Wilmington, Delaware.
The Archdiocese has taken steps to protect the accused
According to the Baltimore report, church leaders focused on hiding abuse rather than protecting victims or stopping abuse. In some cases, victims ended up reporting abuse to the priest who was abusing them. And when law enforcement became aware of allegations of abuse, police and prosecutors were often disrespectful and “indifferent to investigating what church leaders knew when,” the report said. I’m here.
About 500 pages of documentation contains many examples of leaders who took steps to protect condemned clergy, allowing them to retire with financial support rather than being exiled, or detention or failing to report suspected abuse to law enforcement.
For example, in 1964, Father Lawrence Brett admitted to sexually abusing teenagers at Catholic University in Connecticut.
He was sent to New Mexico under the guise of treatment for hepatitis and then to Sacramento, where another teenage boy reported being abused by Brett. and abused more than 20 victims.
In 1973, after several students accused Brett of abuse, Brett was allowed to resign, saying he had to look after his sick aunt. School officials did not report the abuse to authorities, and dozens more victims later came forward. He died in 2010 without criminal charges.
The report primarily focuses on the years before 2002, when an investigation by the Boston Globe into abuses and cover-ups in the Boston Archdiocese led to a nationwide explosion of revelations. agreed to reforms that included a lifetime ministry ban for priests who committed even one incident of abuse. According to the report, new national policies have significantly improved the internal handling of reported abuses in the Archdiocese of Baltimore since 2002, but significant shortcomings remained.
Only 74-year-old Neil Adreberg, who was arrested last year and charged with rape and other charges, has been charged through the investigation. Lawsuits are ongoing. He was a wrestling coach at a Catholic high school in the ’70s, according to sources, but returned to that role for the 2014-2015 school year. However, the victim was not a student at school.
Court to consider releasing more names in the future
State attorneys have asked the court for permission to release the report, and a Baltimore Circuit Court judge ruled last month that the redacted version should be made public. The court ordered the removal of the names and titles of 37 of his accused of wrongdoing. Its name was revealed during secret grand jury proceedings, but we will consider releasing a more complete version in the future.
Lawmakers Pass Bill Ending State Statutes of Limitations Wednesday comes after similar proposals have failed in recent years. Currently, child sexual abuse victims in Maryland cannot file a lawsuit after they turn 38. The bill would remove the age limit and allow retroactive action.
The Archdiocese of Baltimore has long faced scrutiny over its handling of allegations of abuse.
In 2002, Cardinal William Keeler, who had been the archbishop of Baltimore for nearly 20 years, released a list of 57 priests accused of sexual abuse, at a time when misconduct on a nationwide scale was largely undisclosed. , gained fame for its transparency. But that changed when a Pennsylvania grand jury accused Keeler of covering up sexual abuse allegations while serving as bishop of Harrisburg in the 1980s.
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Associated Press reporter Stephanie Dazio contributed to this report from Los Angeles, and Peter Smith contributed from Pittsburgh. Witte reported from Annapolis and Brumfield he reported from Silver Spring.
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