More than six hundred children were victims of sexual abuse perpetuated by over one hundred fifty priests in the Baltimore Catholic Archdiocese, according to a new report from the Maryland Attorney General. However, survivors are heartbroken and angry that many of the names of priests and leadership are still redacted. WYPR’s Scott Maucione joins me with more.
As a warning, this segment will discuss sexual violence.
Tacka: What revelations are coming from this report?
Maucione: We knew that this was going to be a widespread report and one that is similar to reports that have come out in other states regarding the sexual and physical abuse of children by clergy members.
Thirty five of those members were people who had never been outed as abusers.
The report also details how leadership in the Catholic Church purposefully shielded these people and tried to cover up the incidents.
Let’s take a listen to Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown’s description shortly after the release of the report this afternoon.
Brown: The incontrovertible history uncovered by this investigation is one of pervasive, pernicious and persistent abuse by priests. It’s also a history of repeated coverup of that abuse.
Maucione: What this report really spells out is the horror that these children faced.
Some of the things in this report detail priests forcing children to play Russian roulette with guns. It talks about the rape of children as young as eight or nine and choking children by tying them up with rope.
Tacka: And how are the victims responding to this?
Maucione: It’s a bittersweet moment for them.
Jean Hardagon-Wehner was abused by the now desceased Father Joseph McCaskill when she was a teenager.
Hardagon Wehner: I’m feeling very, very sad. Because who in the hell would want to feel happy about the horrible stuff that’s in these papers?
Maucione: But there was more than sadness Matt, there was a sense of vindication. Jean first came forward in 1995, years after the initial incidents.
Hardagon Wehner: This should have happened back in 1995, when we first found the courage somehow God knows how. And some of you can say it was God. But I do know this should happen then. And they knew it was the tip of the iceberg. And I believe they all worked to make sure it didn't go anywhere. And so I feel angry. And I also feel that there is something to be said for a certain amount of I'm gonna say joy, that somebody's listening.
Maucione: But one of the issues that is really angering survivors is the redactions in the report.
Tacka: Tell us about those redactions and why they were part of the report.
Maucione: Attorney General’s office redacted about 60 names from the report. The judge in charge of the case ordered about forty more redactions. These blocked out the names of priests and especially Church leadership who were involved in these incidents from the public.
David Lorenz, the Maryland director for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests was angered by the extent of the redactions.
Lorenz: We don't know anything. There's a lot of church leadership involved in this cover up. And we still don't know.
Maucione: The Attorney General’s Office is now working to unblock those names. However, the court did not want them exposed until they could review the report and respond to the allegations.
Tacka: What have we seen in previous investigations like these?
Maucione: There have certainly been reckonings caused by these reports.
The most recent one to make waves was one that looked into the church in Pennsylvania.
My colleague at The Baltimore Banner, Dylan Segelbaum, looked deeply into that case.
Segelbaum: In 2016, the Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office moved to convene a statewide investigating grand jury to look into allegations of sexual abuse and cover up within six out of the eight Diocese of the Catholic Church in the state.. And the report came out in 2018, it was almost 900 pages and identified more than 300 so called predator priests.
Tacka: What’s next for Maryland? Where do we go from here?
Maucione: The Maryland state legislature is currently in the process of passing a bill that will expand the ability of these survivors to file lawsuits against the Catholic church.
At this point the church has paid out $1.2 million. About $2,000 per person.
This will give the survivors an opportunity to bring larger civil suits.
