NEW: U.S. Dept. of Justice Investigating Catholic Church in Pennsylvania

GoLocalProv News Team

NEW: U.S. Dept. of Justice Investigating Catholic Church in Pennsylvania

U.S. Dept. of Justice investigating Catholic Church in Pennsylvania
The U.S. Justice Department has launched an investigation into alleged sexual abuse by clergy in Pennsylvania’s Roman Catholic Church, according to the Washington Post.

The investigation comes after Pennsylvania’s grand jury issued a report in August that found that more than 300 Catholic priests in the state had sexually abused as many as 1,000 children over a span of seven decades.

“Priests were raping little boys and girls, and the men of God who were responsible for them not only did nothing; they hid it all. For decades,” the grand jury wrote in the report.

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The report comes after an 18-month investigation.

The federal investigation has implications for Bishop Thomas Tobin, the head of the Diocese of Providence. 

Tobin has not been named as an abuser in the grand jury documents, but Tobin was a priest in the Diocese of Pittsburgh from 1973 to 1992 and served as auxiliary Bishop from 1992 until 1995. These time periods coincide with the timeframe when more than 300 priests molested and sexually abused more than 1,000 victims according to grand jury documents.

Tobin served under then-Bishop Donald Wuerl in the Pittsburgh Diocese. Wuerl, recently was forced to resign his post as the Cardinal for the Diocese of Washington, D.C. for his role in sexual abuse coverups.

Investigation in Rhode Island?

As GoLocalProv reported, an exclusive poll commissioned by GoLocal and conducted Harvard’s John Della Volpe found that 89 percent of Rhode Islanders believe the Rhode Island’s Attorney General should open an investigation. Just 7 percent oppose an investigation.

The question asks:

Attorney generals in several states have begun investigating sexual abuse by Roman Catholic clergy, opening investigations and issuing subpoenas for documents.

Do you favor or oppose the Rhode Island Attorney General opening an investigation into the Archdiocese of Providence on issues related to possible sexual abuse of children?

Net: Support    89%

Strongly Support    61%

Somewhat Support    27%

Net: Oppose    7%

Somewhat Oppose    5%

Strongly Oppose    3%

Don't Know    4%

Democratic candidate for Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha said, “I have no comment on the poll results.”

Neronha did say that, “If elected as Attorney General, I expect that the allegations of sexual abuse by clergy that have been publicly reported (and perhaps others) are something that I would be asked by victims to review, to the extent they are not already under review by the current Attorney General, which may or may not be the case.”

The story was first published 10/18/18 2:46 PM


GoLocal Statewide Poll - FULL RESULTS, Conducted by Harvard's Della Volpe Oct. 2018

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