http://www.mcall.com/news/breaking/mc-nws-pennsylvania-grand-jury-report-advance-20180619-story.html
PENNSYLVANIA SUPREME COURT BLOCKS RELEASE OF PRIEST SEX ABUSE REPORT
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Wednesday blocked the expected release of a massive report examining sexual abuse and misconduct by priests in six Pennsylvania dioceses, including Allentown.
The state’s high court issued an order barring Cambria County Judge Norman Krumenacker, who supervised the grand jury that heard testimony over two years, and Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro from releasing the report until further order.
The court’s order does not indicate who sought to block release of the report but it indicates the court received more than one application for a stay.
Matt Kerr, spokesman for the Allentown Diocese, said the diocese was not one of the petitioners that moved to block the report.
“We have not and will not,” he said.
The Harrisburg Diocese also did not move to block the report, spokesman Mike Barley said. The Scranton Diocese said it did not request the stay and would not.
Greensburg Diocese’s spokesman said neither the diocese nor Bishop Edward C. Malesic filed the court postponement request.
A spokesman for the Pittsburgh Diocese said, “Neither the Diocese of Pittsburgh nor Bishop David Zubik have motions pending before the Supreme Court to block the release of the report.”
The Erie Diocese could not be reached.
Attorney Richard Serbin, who has represented numerous people in cases alleging sexual abuse by priests for around 30 years, said he was shocked and disappointed by the order.
“The issue of child sex abuse that has gone on for decades within the church needs to be exposed and I’m disappointed in any proceeding or maneuver that delays that,” he said.
Serbin said he knows that evidence against priests that previously had not been disclosed publicly was presented to the grand jury.
After the court issued its order, state Rep. Mark Rozzi, D-Berks, was distraught and angry, calling the decision “a punch in the gut.” Rozzi, who testified before the grand jury, has spoken publicly, often in graphic detail, about the priest who raped him growing up in Reading. Last week, he held a news conference saying the release of the grand jury report could spur the Legislature to pass a new bill enhancing the legal rights of adults who experienced child sex abuse.
On Wednesday afternoon, Rozzi sat in his office, his face in his hands, with a scrapbook of news clippings about child sex abuse issues and a hastily written speech before him. He called the court order a “travesty of justice and an insult to all victims of childhood sex abuse, not just Catholic victims.”
He questioned why the Supreme Court would get involved in the release of the grand jury report when state law does not permit that and the high court never issued a stay in any other grand jury report involving child sex abuse and cover-ups. Rozzi added he hoped the court was not trying to protect religious figures and “public officials and community leaders” whom Krumenacker hinted would be identified in his prior order rejecting legal requests to postpone publication.
“This is absolutely devastating to many victims,” Rozzi said. “I understand the Supreme Court is going to review legal challenges. So this is not it. We have an opportunity for this report still to still be released.”
Several people who testified and advocacy groups say the report’s findings could be devastating to the church, not only because of the abuse but also alleged efforts to cover it up.
“It’ll be blistering,” said James Faluszczak, who says he was abused as a teenager by Monsignor Daniel J. Martin, an Erie priest who died in 2006.
Court records, news accounts and data compiled by advocacy groups show that more than two dozen priests in the Allentown Diocese or serving the Lehigh Valley outside of diocesan administration have been accused of sexual misconduct going back to the 1960s.
The diocesan administration led by Bishop Alfred Schlert — who became bishop after the grand jury was empaneled — said it cooperated fully with investigators.
“We welcome the release of the report,” the diocese said in a statement this month. “This story needs to be told, so that we can learn from the report and continue to improve protections for children.”
Along with Allentown, the investigation covers the Erie, Greensburg, Harrisburg, Pittsburgh and Scranton dioceses. Last weekend, Scranton Bishop Joseph C. Bambera offered his “deepest apologies to the victims of such abuse, to their families, to the faithful of our church and to everyone impacted by the behaviors described in this report.”
The investigation began in 2016 after another grand jury looking at the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese found at least 50 priests or religious leaders had sexually abused hundreds of minors. The report also found many of the allegations were not reported to law enforcement, but instead were covered up by bishops for decades. Grand juries looking into complaints in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia reported similarly explosive findings. The forthcoming report would cover the remaining dioceses in Pennsylvania.
More than 250,000 Catholics are in the Allentown Diocese. Across Pennsylvania, 3.2 million people are Catholic, according to the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference.
PREVIOUS GRAND JURIES - Grand juries also investigated allegations in the state's other two dioceses.
2005: Philadelphia grand jury investigates allegations against more than 60 priests, finding abusive priests were moved around and not reported to police.
2011: Phildelphia's second grand jury focused on the church's practices since 2005, finding many credibly accused priests remained active; charges are filed against three priests, a teacher and Monsignor William Lynn, who was convicted of recklessly endangering children for not removing an abusive priest. His conviction was overturned, then reinstated and he awaits retrial.
https://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/tag/monsignor-william-lynn/ There are many links included within this link so you can follow the stomach turning case of Lynn. At one point there was writing of his case having possible effect on Jerry Sandusky case. Could this have been the reason he has been in and out of jail. Why he has never been finally locked up for good?
2016: A statewide grand jury into the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese uncovers allegations against more than 50 priests and an effort to keep the complaints secret.
This decision by the Supreme Court has not been well received by @StcharlesSeminary or @Jane58 I am sure. I will leave it up to them whether they want to respond here or not. There is never pressure to do so. For those of you that have not read the story of StcharlesSeminary Our Courageous SRA Survivor, please be directed here to my former post St. Charles Seminary Tunnels https://voat.co/v/pizzagate/2397920
view the rest of the comments →
carmencita ago
“It’ll be blistering,” said James Faluszczak, who says he was abused as a teenager by Monsignor Daniel J. Martin, an Erie priest who died in 2006.
http://www.thecourierexpress.com/news/local/ex-priest-names-former-ecc-headmaster-as-alleged-abuser/article_b09f2df1-3e7b-512f-9d93-586469d28aed.html
Former-priest James Faluszczak, 48, now of Buffalo, N.Y., has decided to speak out — naming his alleged abuser, an Erie priest with local ties.
Faluszczak has identified the Rev. Monsignor Daniel J. Martin, who served as pastor of St. Boniface Parish, Kersey, in 1962, and as headmaster of Elk County Christian, as the school was then called, serving there until 1970. Martin died in 2006 at age 88.
The incident has surfaced as Faluszczak claims to have been one of many witnesses to testify before a grand jury, whose proceedings are secret and which was convened at the request of the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office around September 2016 to investigate sex abuse allegations in dioceses throughout Pennsylvania, according to the Erie-Times News.
Faluszczak said that Martin molested him when he was 16 to 19 years old, adding that the abuse occurred at St. George and at Mt. Calvary Church and then at Mercyhurst College, now Mercyhurst University, all in the Erie area, where Faluszczak said Martin was living at the time.
Faluszczak added that Martin used the knowledge of his family’s hardships in the 1980s “to groom” him for the abuse.
“Most people would see this as irony but it’s really pathology,” said Faluszczak in a phone interview Saturday morning.
Despite the abuse, Faluszczak became a priest in 1996 and spent nearly 20 years in active ministry. He eventually would serve two of the same congregations as had his alleged abuser.
He served locally in the Elk County Catholic school system, of which Martin was the first headmaster, and then as the pastor of St. Boniface Parish in Kersey, where Martin also served.
“Father Martin lived in that rectory for two years while he built Elk County Catholic. I had to sleep in the same bedroom as he slept in how many years prior,” Faluszczak said. “I loved being at St. Boniface. I loved my community, and I loved my parish... that was my flock.
“But in the back of my mind I still had that notion that Father Martin had lived in that house.”
Faluszczak also served for a time as a campus minister at Clarion University.
Ultimately, the Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder he experienced as a result of his abuse led to panic attacks, especially at the altar of St. Boniface. That led him to drink periodically, he said, to numb some of what he was feeling. Eventually he would be charged with a DUI in Fox Township in 2014.
“I had been abused by Father Martin and then I was in these situations where I was constantly reminded of him and in some of my assignments I was surrounded by people doing these pathological things,” Faluszczak said. “And all of that took a toll on me.”
Erie Diocese spokeswoman Anne-Marie Welsh said Saturday, “We are still in the process of confirming identities of the accused that will be published within the next few weeks. At that time, we expect to have a news conference during which we will provide additional information.”
new4now ago
these Priests need to be branded on their faces to let all know what they have done
church wont do anything
judicial doesnt do anything
something has to be done
carmencita ago
Need to get rid of jorge