In the United States, the clergy of Baltimore, Maryland’s largest city, have been accused of sexually abusing more than 600 children. Similar crimes were committed in an American city for 60 years – from the 1940s to 2002, according to report state attorney general.
There are 156 defendants in the criminal case of child sexual abuse, most of whom are ministers of the Roman Catholic Church from the Archdiocese of Baltimore. The names of some of the defendants’ names were withheld by court order.
The investigation into child abuse in the Archdiocese of Baltimore continued for five years, interviewing victims and witnesses of the crimes. As noted NBC, the investigation revealed “the archdiocese’s systemic failure to protect the most vulnerable – the children it has been assigned to protect.” According to the channel, the clergy of Baltimore knew regarding a number of facts of pedophilia in the archdiocese, but hid them in order to avoid scandal. In a number of cases, in the Roman Catholic Church, those suspected of sexual abuse of children and adolescents were removed from their positions and prohibited from working with minors, but no one turned to law enforcement agencies.
Baltimore Archbishop William Laurie admitted that his subordinates were involved in the facts of sexual violence and publicly apologized for the abuse, which is noted in the report of the city attorney. The document “describes in detail a reprehensible period in the history of the archdiocese, a period that cannot be hidden, ignored or forgotten,” the clergyman emphasized.
