300 pastors committed sexual abuse of more than 1000 children: Report
Washington, The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has released a grand jury report on sexual abuse by Catholics clergy on Tuesday. It has been revealed in this report that over 300 pastors have sexually abused children more than a jar in the last 70 years. Not only this, it has been reported in the report that the churches tried to curtail these crimes of the clergy.
State Attorney General Josh Shapiro said in a press conference on Tuesday that more than 1000 victims have been identified in the report, but the Grand Jury believes that this number is more.
According to ‘The Wall Street Journal’, it is the biggest test report on sexual abuse in US Catholic churches. The investigation, which lasted for 18 months, was led by Attorney General Josh Shapiro. He was accompanied by officers from Harrisburg, Pittsburgh, Allentown, Scranton, Erie and Greensburg districts.
This 1400-page report found that senior officials of the Church in Pennsylvania and Vatican tried to hide cases of these sexual abuse in a systematic manner. Shapiro said, ‘The result of hiding these cases was that they are now too old to run the case.’
According to the report, the clergy exploited both boys and girls. According to an example in the report, when a priest in Altontown district was questioned about the complaint of sexual abuse, he confessed to exploiting a boy and said, ‘Please help me.’
According to the report, in another case, the cleric forced the 9-year-old boy to have oral sex and after that his mouth washed with ‘holy water’. Another pastor acknowledged the rape of a girl decades ago. According to the priest, the victim girl was 7 years old and was admitted to the hospital for treatment of tonsils.
Dozens of clerics approached the High Court to stop the report from issuing them so that their names or any such information should be removed from the report so that they can be identified. These clerks claim that if their names appear in the report, then their image will be greatly damaged.
