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House Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
House of Representatives
Session of 2015 - 2016
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | March 11, 2016 05:05 PM |
|---|---|
| From: | Representative Mark Rozzi |
| To: | All House members |
| Subject: | Resolution Urging PA District Attorneys to investigate Roman Catholic Dioceses Within Their Jurisdiction |
| As you know, the 37th Statewide Investigating Grand Jury recently issued a scathing report documenting the horrific and perverse acts of child sex abuse by at least 50 priests and religious leaders within the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown, victimizing hundreds of children. This is just the latest example of the systemic sexual abuse of children and the cover-up by the Roman Catholic Church leadership. Similarly outrageous findings were graphically detailed, documented and kept in the Canon Law-required secret files, which were exposed in the 2003, 2005 and 2011 grand jury Investigations of the Philadelphia Archdiocese, involving hundreds of victims. The real numbers are probably in the thousands as statistics show that only one in ten abused children summon the courage to come forward. I, and our other colleagues over the years, have desperately tried to communicate that the epidemic of child sex abuse is not just a Catholic problem. On any given day, you’ll find news accounts about the sexual assaults on children in schools, clubs, teams and other religious denominations. No organization that has access to children is free of this scourge. However, the trend of child sex abuse cases uncovered in dioceses across the Commonwealth cannot be ignored. The 2014 Annual Report of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops reported that of the $150 million the Church spent between July 2013 and June 2014 in costs related to child protection efforts, $119 million went to settlements paid to victims, therapy for victims, attorneys’ fees and other costs. Over 80 percent of credible allegations of abuse reported in that timeframe dated back over 25 years. I agree with former Philadelphia D.A. Lynne Abraham that district attorneys are reluctant to use their grand jury subpoenas powers, especially involving institutions. As she has stated many times, “Where there’s smoke, there might be fire and it’s the duty to the people who voted me into office to see how deep and far this goes.” This past September, Pope Francis pledged that “we will follow the truth wherever it may lead.” In the near future I will introduce a resolution calling on District Attorneys throughout Pennsylvania to use their subpoena powers to investigate the Catholic dioceses within their jurisdiction for evidence of the sexual abuse of children, to empanel a grand jury if necessary and to make any legislative remedies it deems appropriate in order to ensure that predators are identified and that child victims of sex abuse find justice. Please join me in the fight to protect children and not the hidden predators among us. The full grand jury report is available HERE |
Introduced as HR763