“An investigation by Maryland’s attorney general identified 158 Roman Catholic priests in the Archdiocese of Baltimore who have been accused of sexually and physically abusing more than 600 victims over the past 80 years, according to court records filed Thursday,” ABC News reports.
Attorney General Brian Frosh announced his office completed a 463-page report, which stemmed from an investigation beginning in 2019.
“For decades, survivors reported sexual abuse perpetrated by Catholic priests and for decades the Church covered up the abuse rather than holding the abusers accountable and protecting its congregations,” according to the court filing.
“The Archdiocese of Baltimore was no exception.”
Frosh filed a motion in Baltimore Circuit Court to make the report public.
The report, titled “Clergy Abuse in Maryland,” identifies 115 priests who were prosecuted for sex abuse and/or identified publicly by the archdiocese as having been “credibly accused” of sexual abuse.
It also includes an additional 43 priests accused of sexual abuse but not identified publicly by the archdiocese, the court filing said.
BREAKING: The Office of the Maryland Attorney General has identified 158 priests in the Archdiocese of Baltimore accused of sexually and physically abusing more than 600 victims over the past 80 years, according to court records https://t.co/OmUrKcZjcA
— The Baltimore Banner (@BaltimoreBanner) November 17, 2022
NEW: Maryland AG investigation into Catholic church sexual abuse finds at least 600 victims; reveals at least 158 priests accused of abuse. AG found Archdiocese of Baltimore actively engaged in coverup for decades. @baltimoresun https://t.co/4mxcrexnOc
— Lee Sanderlin (@LeeOSanderlin) November 17, 2022
#BREAKING: The Archdiocese of Baltimore covered up decades of child sexual abuse perpetrated by Catholic priests, the Maryland Attorney General's Office alleged in a court filing Thursday. https://t.co/mPme4L6BX5
— WJZ | CBS Baltimore (@wjz) November 17, 2022
Cont. from ABC News:
David Lorenz, the Maryland leader of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, described the news of the report and numbers of victims as “absolutely horrendous.”
“Once again, the church has lied about the number of abusive priests,” Lorenz said in a statement. “Many parishes were dumping grounds for predators, some housed almost ten. It is very clear that nobody was safe. Sadly, it is no different than any diocese or secular report in the country.”
The archdiocese did not immediately return a request for comment.
While the court filing noted that more than 600 victims were identified, it also said “there are almost certainly hundreds more, as the Department of Justice’s Annual Crime Victimization Report has demonstrated that most incidents of sexual assault go unreported.”
Both boys and girls were abused, according to the court filing, with ages ranging from preschool through young adulthood.
“Although no parish was safe, some congregations and schools were assigned multiple abusive priests, and a few had more than one sexually abusive priest at the same time,” the court filing said. “One congregation was assigned eleven sexually abusive priests over 40 years.”
The sexual abuse was so pervasive, the court filing said, that victims were sometimes reporting sexual abuse to priests who were perpetrators themselves.
The investigation also revealed that the archdiocese failed to report many allegations of sexual abuse, conduct adequate investigations of alleged abuse, remove abusers from the ministry or restrict their access to children.
“Instead, it went to great lengths to keep the abuse secret,” the court filing said. “While the Archdiocese reported a large number of allegations to police, especially in later years, for decades it worked to ensure that the perpetrators would not face justice.”
The Baltimore Banner added:
Thirty of the 43 priests have died, she wrote. That leaves 13 living priests who have not been previously accused of sexual abuse. Williams told the courts the office has redacted those 13 names from the report.
“By doing so, the office has satisfied the only outstanding argument in support of non-disclosure,” she wrote.
In Pennsylvania, 11 previously unidentified priests accused of sexual abuse successfully argued to the state’s highest court that their names should be redacted from a similar report. The court agreed, finding the redactions necessary to protect their legal rights of due process.
Still, the news surprised and alarmed survivors in Maryland that the attorney general’s office intends to redact the 13 names.
“It isn’t good … Now we have 13 people and we don’t know who they are? Oh, my God. You got to be kidding me,” said David Lorenz, director of the Maryland Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests or SNAP.
Lorenz called for the archdiocese to step in.
“It’s incumbent on the diocese to publish those 13 names,” he said. “OK, the attorney general can’t, or has a big hurdle, a hill they don’t want to climb. I’m very disappointed. I think the church now has a responsibility.”
The Maryland report is expected to resemble the bombshell 2018 investigation in Pennsylvania and span hundreds of pages with allegations of child sex abuse tracing back decades. Investigators told the courts they found one congregation was assigned 11 sexually abusive priests in 40 years. The abuse was so pervasive that victims reported sexual abuse to priests who were abusers themselves, according to the court record.
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