Catholics around the world are processing a stunning report out of Pennsylvania detailing horrific sexual abuses of children by hundreds of priests across the state of Pennsylvania state attorney general Josh Shapiro led the two year-long investigation and spoke very bluntly about the church's efforts to repeatedly cover-up these crimes.
The church officials routinely and purposefully described the abuse as horseplay and wrestling an inappropriate contact it was none of those things it was child sexual abuse including rape committed by grown men priests against children the stories of abuse by men who are given the highest level of trust are grotesque those entrusted to minister to their communities used gold crosses necklaces symbols of their faith to mark their victims making them easier to target a child was stripped naked and forced to stand on a bed and pose as Christ on the cross one priests confessed to raping at least 15 boys some as young as seven years old another abused five sisters from the same family and please pay attention the numbers we were about to go through are both stunning and disturbing more than 1,000 children were abused in twisted and sadistic cases of exploitation some of which included alcohol whips and holy water and the state AG says he believes his office believes there are even more the grand jury report names 301 priests though some remain redacted but the scope of the abuse is staggering it's staggering because you only get numbers this big if there are systemic cover-ups going on year after year and it's not like this is a new story year after year is right this report covers allegations over more than 70 years starting in the 1940s across the state church officials allegedly helped the disgusting abuse by moving priests even giving one who left the church a job reference to work at Disneyworld and to put those 301 abusers in perspective there are only nine hundred and eighty-two parishes in Pennsylvania and priests regularly move around during their careers giving these abusers the chance to victimize children statewide for decades this problem touched every single diocese in the state and it reaches far beyond Pennsylvania something all billion Catholics across the planet will have to reckon with the state attorney general presented a video giving the survivors an opportunity to share their stories in their own words there's a bit of that video I grew up in a small western Pennsylvania town Johnstown Pennsylvania I grew up in baffle and hot which is like right behind steel high high school steel an area I was groomed starting young the day I met him I was I was about 18 months old they targeted me because I was fatherless we were taught I mean the priests and the nuns are God just think like the word God makes me think of him tonight is who do believe me a priest in 1948 or 47 would abused you petuzi never heard of such a thing because they covered it up it doesn't ever go away it has an effect on you for the rest of your life and I'm a survivor it's very lonely so so it's your word against God's your word against God's they covered it up year after year joining us now one of the survivors that you saw in that video Sean Doherty and Mitchell Garabedian be Dean in an attorney representing six survivors directly involved in this report he's represented those Abused by priests for more than 20 years Mitchell thank you for your work Sean thank you for your story you said that sharing this story was one of the proudest things you have ever done in your life tell us why and what has the last 24 hours been like for you it's been absolutely relieving for the last 24 hours I've had this weight lifted off my shoulder since I joined the military in 1991 and sworn oath you know I've been trying to talk about this since then I feel yesterday I had the opportunity to fulfill my oath I'm thrilled that since I came out publicly the people that I'm connected to now the stories that were sharing the people that are reaching out to me from literally around the world that this helps us all immensely we have all been alone for so long and now we are all connected through our stories through this grand jury and now through social media and we are now instead of fighting this on our own we are trying to tackle it together Mitchell I you know some of the the offenses detailed have happened in the last 10 years I'm kind of fascinated by that because I have heard this story and have been covering it for decades why when this first came out did this not stop did the church not take stronger actions why are we still talking about this we now know it's been going on for 70 plus years and this this horrific story is just about the state of Pennsylvania its criminality criminality through and through you are dealing with an international criminal enterprise for centuries and I have clients who abused seven eighty years ago they were sexually abused by priests they were in the criminal acts were clear the supervisors allowed it to happen those were criminal acts and allowing it to happen and it's continuing you have the most prestigious powerful influential institution in the world the Catholic Church allowing the wholesale sexual abuse of children supervisors turn their backs on innocent children pedophile priests sexually abused innocent children and the Vatican knew about it Cardinals knew about it Cardinal McCarrick himself is a sexual abuser Monsignors knew about it supervisors knew about it if the prowl if the Catholic Church has a problem with money they'll call the police to determine who's stealing money from the church but if they have a problem with sexual abuse of children they keep it quiet and that's how it's been kept quiet secrecy is the common thread here Sean do you have any confidence that things will change now to Ally's point we've been telling this story year after year and even yesterday when you saw the response out of Washington Cardinal Donald Wuerl he used to be in Pittsburgh for years and years and you would think at this point the Catholic Church would take some sort of draconian measures to say the buck stops here we must end this but instead again we're getting the were disappointed we're sorry we're troubleshooting that's the hand they've played forever that's the hand that's worked that's the hand that's got into the point that's the hand that they're gonna play you don't think anything will change no I believe I personally believe change is coming but it's not going to be because of the church how and why it's gonna be forced just like how the Catholic Church's changes anything else they're forced to do it there they're going to have to face this report years ago it was only the Catholic Conference of Bishops secretly sharing their secret archives in their joint conferences somewhere in the country secretly well we all suffered alone now we are all together and our conference room is a hell of a lot bigger than theirs what's your conference room what do you mean social media I have people today Ireland Australia New Zealand BBC every everywhere everywhere everywhere from around the world we're all talking about this report and what we collectively are going to force the Roman Catholic Church to do Mitchel you've been talking about how widespread this is and how long standing it is the state attorney general Josh Shapiro in Pennsylvania said he doesn't think his office got everyone how widespread do you believe this is in other words is that the same proportions across America oh yes this is the what we saw in Pennsylvania and I agree with the Attorney General this is the tip of the iceberg just in Pennsylvania alone and I admire Sean for coming forward and I thank him for coming forward but victims of clergy sexual abuse always know other victims of sexual abuse they always can tell you the names of five or ten other victims of sexual abuse because all these children hung around together with the priest and he would sexually abuse them all and so you know this is today alone I've received three calls from Pennsylvania from victims who said I I was abused by a priest who is not on that list I want his name on that list this is just the beginning in Boston when it exploded we had a torrent of victims come forward and naming a huge number of free but today in Boston 20 years later I'm still representing new victims coming forward who were abused by new unnamed priests priests weren't named before and it's very very difficult situations for victims to come forward but because of heroes like Sean he's not only empowering himself he's empowering other victims and he's making the world a safer place for children the change is going to come from outside of the Catholic Church the public is now being aware you can't let your children near these criminals because neither the supervisors now the criminal or the pedophiles care about the health safety and welfare of children just think about that when he says these criminals we're not talking about thugs on the street who could pull your kid into a van these are faith leaders you go to a church for guidance solace and leadership Sean for Catholics today you were very candid in your video saying you had no desire to have children because of this so today how to Catholics after a report like this walk into church on Sunday two of my kids go to Catholic school how do people find their way after something like this being raised Catholic although I'm not practicing I'd say now's the time you have to dig deep into your faith into your faith not your church's faith into your faith into your heart think about your Judgment Day don't think about you know the church is made up of the people the people pay all the bills will this finally Rock the Catholic Church because it hasn't been if it doesn't I'm giving up I mean what else do you have to do do you have to walk in kick the door in bring the cameras and catch them in a hotel in Times Square because we're in Times Square these guys are just like single guys trying to score on the weekend I think this was New York City with children they visit Niagara Falls they take them on camping trips they take them to the beach they bring them here to st.
Patrick's Cathedral take them to abroad show your abuser was teaching you how to drive teaching me how to drive we played golf we played racquetball we bicycle it everywhere I mean you name it I was one block away from the school I grew up one block away from the school Sean thank you you are hero for sharing your story and for those of the other survivors thank you to all of you for doing this and for Mitchell Mitchell Garabedian is an attorney for six victims in the report he has been fighting sex abuse in the church since the 1990s thank you to both of you and to everyone else who has helped us in this effort there was a time in this country when we looked to the government and we looked to the church for cues on how to act how to build communities and how to work together right now those days seem so far away this morning the headlines across the board are full of examples of how institutions that helped build this country are now letting us down so if the institutions aren't doing it the individuals must as Sean says look to yourself look to your heart look to your faith hey MSNBC fans thanks for checking out our YouTube channel subscribe by clicking on that button down there and click on any of the videos here to watch the latest interviews and highlights you can get more MSNBC for free every day with our newsletters just visit msnbc.com slash newsletters to sign up now
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Posted from my blog with SteemPress : http://religiousscandals.com/2019/03/24/1000-reports-of-sexual-abuse-by-catholic-priests-in-pa-velshi-ruhle-msnbc/