Justice Department Launches Federal Probe Into Pennsylvania Church Sex-Abuse

The Justice Department (DOJ) has launched an investigation into at least six Roman Catholic dioceses in Pennsylvania over child sex abuse claims allegedly covered up by the church for decades.

It’s believed to be the first statewide probe opened by federal authorities on these cases, marking an unprecedented shift in the nation’s escalating scrutiny of the church. So far, at least thirteen states have announced their own investigation into such allegations.

According to the New York Times, seven of the eight dioceses in Pennsylvania communicated that they had received federal grand jury subpoenas from the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

Roman Catholic dioceses in Philadelphia, Erie, Harrisburg, Scranton, Pittsburgh, Greensburg, and Allentown all received the subpoenas. The eighth, Altoona-Johnstown, did not respond to requests for comment.

A DOJ spokeswoman told The Epoch Times in an email the department generally “does not confirm, deny or otherwise comment” on the existence or non-existence of an investigation. The Associated Press first reported the DOJ investigation on Oct. 18.

The federal probe comes just months after Pennsylvania’s attorney general’s office publicly released a bombshell grand jury report that accused more than 300 “predator priests” across Pennsylvania of sexual abuse. At least 1,000 child victims were identified in the report while revealing that Church officials were complicit in a decades-long cover-up.

“This subpoena is no surprise considering the horrific misconduct detailed in the statewide grand jury report,” said the Diocese of Greensburg in a statement. “Survivors, parishioners and the public want to see proof that every diocese has taken sweeping, decisive and impactful action to make children safer.”

Many of the cases mentioned in the report took place as far back as the 1970s, meaning their cases are too old to revisit due to the statute of limitations. It is one of the main legal impediments prosecutors face. The statute of limitations is different in each state.

Tim Lennon, president of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), said the investigation is long overdue. Four statewide grand juries in Pennsylvania since 2003 identified around 500 alleged sexual predators among acting or former Catholic clergy, he said.

“In what other institution could you have 500 criminals and not be prosecuted?” asked Lennon, who said he was raped by a Catholic priest when he was a child.

Lennon said SNAP had asked the federal government three times since 2002 for a nationwide investigation of 15,000 active or retired Catholic clergy accused of being sexual predators.

“This is a first. Federal law enforcement has been awfully silent on the Catholic abuse problem, and it’s about time,” said Anne Barrett-Doyle, co-director of BishopAccountability.org, a U.S.-based resource center that tracks cases of clerical abuse worldwide.

She said the only other U.S. federal probe was of a bishop in Boston in the early 2000s.

In September, U.S. Catholic bishops said they would set up a hotline for accusations of sexual abuse against bishops and other church leaders, or allegations of cover-ups by such people.

Reuters contributed to this report.