A new report of abuse has shaken the Catholic Church in the United States: According to a government investigation published on Thursday (local time), im Archdiocese Baltimore more than 600 people have been abused since 1940. The victims are said to be children and young people who were not older than 18 at the time of the crime. 158 priests were “credibly” accused.
Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh has accused the church of never prosecuting dozens of suspects. Many have already died. The figures come from a 35-page letter that Frosh gave to a court in Baltimore submitted. In it he requests permission to read the full report on church abuse to publish in Maryland. His authority worked for years on the evaluation of more than 450 pages. Now is the time to be accountable.
Victim representatives and Archbishop react
Court approval is required because the report contains a large amount of sensitive data. It is unclear when and how the responsible court will decide on the application from the public prosecutor. “For decades, survivors have reported sexual abuse by Catholic priests,” US media quoted Frosh’s documents as saying. “And instead of holding those responsible to account, the church has rather covered up the crimes for decades.” The Archdiocese Baltimore be “no exception”.
Victim representatives were shocked by the public prosecutor’s figures. They are “disturbing,” said a spokesman. Baltimore Archbishop William Lori wrote a letter to the faithful and apologized to those affected by the abuse. He feels “shame, deep remorse and compassion” for all those who have been harmed spiritually and physically by church officials. A spokesman for the archdiocese also emphasized that they had “fully cooperated” with the public prosecutor’s office and had made more than 100,000 documents available to investigators since 2019. (KNA)
