State Supreme Court won’t release clergy abuse report yet
Amid cries for the grand jury report to be released, justices have said they’ll allow further appeals against publicizing it. (Photo by AP)
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(Harrisburg) — Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court said late Friday that it won’t release a grand jury report on sexual abuse of children in six of the commonwealth’s eight Roman Catholic dioceses.
The decision comes after a number of unnamed current and former clergy filed objections over the course of several weeks.
The report was expected to be made public last month. The product of a more than two-year investigation, it is expected to be hundreds of pages long.
But the court stayed it in response to anonymous appeals from people saying it would violate their due process rights.
Newer filings show the appeals are coming from almost two dozen current and former clergy members.
They claim the report is full of errors and could wrongly incriminate them, and are pushing for more opportunities to deny it.
On the other side of the issue are nine news outlets arguing that under state law, the report should be released–even if it has to be redacted.
In a recent filing, Attorney General Josh Shapiro called the appeals “a desperate attempt to stop the public from learning the truth about their abhorrent conduct,” and said he opposes giving clergy the option to essentially rewrite the report “in accordance with their preferred view of the facts.”
The court said it is accepting further objections to the release next week.
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