BALTIMORE, MD – According to a shocking new report released on Wednesday, over 150 Catholic priests and others associated with the Archdiocese of Baltimore allegedly sexually abused more than 600 children – often without any consequences due to alleged church cover-ups – over the course of an 80-year span of time.
The purported actions of the Archdiocese of Baltimore – the oldest Roman Catholic diocese in the United States – were lambasted in the report, which reveals that some parishes, schools, and congregations actually had multiple abusers living and working among them at the same time.
For example, St. Mark Parish and Catonsville had 11 alleged child molesters among its clergy between 1964 and 2004; one deacon among that number admitted to sexually abusing over 100 children during his time there, while a priest was permitted to pretend to have hepatitis and attend “fake” treatments for the malady in order to avoid allegations that he had abused children as well.
The report is the result of an investigation conducted by the Maryland Attorney General’s office over the course of several years, which concluded that the 600 children who were alleged victims of sexual abuse at the Church’s hands was most likely a very conservative number, with the real number of victims likely being much higher.
“The staggering pervasiveness of the abuse itself underscores the culpability of the Church hierarchy,” the report said. “The sheer number of abusers and victims, the depravity of the abusers’ conduct, and the frequency with which known abusers were given the opportunity to continue preying upon children are astonishing.”
The Catholic Church has been rocked by multiple scandals over the years involving members of their clergy allegedly molesting large numbers of innocent children, as well as the subsequent attempts by the Church’s upper hierarchy to cover up such heinous activity.
Baltimore Archbishop William Lori released a statement in reaction to the report, apologizing to the victims and pledging that there will be no attempts to hide the crimes that occurred.
“The report details a reprehensible time in the history of this Archdiocese, a time that will not be covered up, ignored or forgotten,” he said. “It is difficult for most to imagine that such evil acts could have actually occurred. For victim-survivors everywhere, they know the hard truth: These evil acts did occur.”
or a specific category with our 
Comments are closed.