Federal prosecutors open clergy abuse probe in Pennsylvania - News 

The Catholic sex abuse reckoning continues in Pennsylvania

VOX

• The US Justice Department has opened an investigation of child sexual abuse inside the Catholic Church in Pennsylvania, a pattern of behavior that allegedly dates back to the late 1940s. [AP / Maryclaire Dale and Eric Tucker]
• So far, US authorities have subpoenaed at least three Catholic dioceses, including the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, as part of the probe. It comes a few months after a scathing grand jury report on Pennsylvania priests. [CNN / Daniel Burke and Rosa Flores]
• The report includes an appendix of 301 “predator priests” in six dioceses across the state, who have allegedly sexually abused more than 1,000 children since 1947. Most of the victims are said to be boys, many of whom were prepubescent at the time of the abuse. [Washington Post]
• The accused dioceses serve more than half of the state’s 3.2 million Catholic followers. Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro previously said no state charges could be filed because of statutes of limitation. [CBS Philly]



Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro speaks during a news conference at the state Capitol in Harrisburg, Pa., on Aug. 14, 2018. A Pennsylvania grand jury’s investigation of clergy sexual abuse identified more than 1,000 child victims. The people seated were some of those affected by the clergy abuse. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

• In the meantime, advocacy groups for abuse victims, like Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, have been ramping up calls for a federal investigation ever since the report was released in August. [Religion News / Jack Jenkins]
• The issue of child sexual abuse by Catholic priests was brought to national light in 2002 following a series of publications by the Boston Globe’s Spotlight team, which led to the criminal prosecutions of five priests from the Catholic Archdiocese of Boston. [Boston Globe]