Over 600 children were sexually abused by Catholic clergy in Maryland, report finds

A yearslong investigation by the Maryland Attorney General’s Office identified over 600 victims of child sexual abuse by priests in the state over a period of 80 years. The findings follow in the wake of dozens of similar reports in recent years in the U.S. and across the world.

The state’s attorney general, Brian Frosh, filed a motion in the Circuit Court of Baltimore on Thursday, Nov. 17, to release the full contents of the 456-page report, according to a news release from his office.

“For decades, survivors reported sexual abuse perpetrated by Catholic priests and for decades the Church covered up the abuse rather than holding the abusers accountable and protecting its Congregations,” Frosh said in the release. “The Archdiocese of Baltimore was no exception.”

William Lori, the archbishop of Baltimore, offered an apology in a statement provided to McClatchy News on Nov. 17.

“The information contained in the motion will no doubt be a source of renewed pain for many, most especially those harmed by representatives of the Church, for the lay faithful of our Archdiocese, as well as for many good priests, deacons and religious,” Lori wrote in the statement.

“I once again offer my sincere apologies to the victim-survivors who were harmed by a minister of the Church and who were harmed by those who failed to protect them,” Lori stated, adding that conclusions drawn from the attorney general’s motion “do not reflect the Archdiocese’s current and decades-long strong pastoral response and handling of allegations of child sexual abuse.”

Investigation started in 2019

Following investigations from other states, including Massachusetts and Pennsylvania, Maryland’s attorney general launched a criminal investigation into sexual abuses perpetrated by clergy at the Archdiocese of Baltimore in 2019.

As part of the investigation, the office established a telephone hotline and email address where Marylanders could report information about child sexual abuse, according to the motion.

Over 300 people provided information, and the attorney general’s office then interviewed hundreds of victims and witnesses, the motion said.

After a roughly three-year investigation, the office’s finalized report, which it seeks to make public, identifies over 600 victims and 115 priests who were either prosecuted for sex abuse or the archdioceses publicly identified “as having been ‘credibly accused’ of sexual abuse,” according to the motion.

An additional 43 priests were accused of sexual abuse but not identified by the archdiocese, the motion stated.

“The sexual abuse was so pervasive that victims were sometimes reporting sexual abuse to priests who were perpetrators themselves,” according to the motion, which added that “one congregation was assigned 11 sexually abusive priests over 40 years.”

Victims ranged in age from preschool to young adulthood, according to the motion.

Netflix series examined the allegations

The sexual abuse controversy had been emerging for years in Baltimore and across the broader Catholic world. The subject was brought to national attention in 2002 when the Boston Globe covered abuses perpetrated by several Catholic priests in Massachusetts.

In 2017, “The Keepers,” a Netflix documentary series, examined allegations of sexual abuse perpetrated by priests in Baltimore. In response to the series, Baltimore police created a website for people seeking to report decades-old abuses, according to The Washington Post.

More recently, a 2021 report concluded that 3,000 priests committed child sexual abuse in France over the past 70 years, according to The Associated Press. And Nov. 17, it was revealed that more than 600 cases of sexual abuse committed by Catholic priests were reported in Italy over the last 22 years, according to AP.

It is not clear when the Circuit Court of Baltimore will rule on the motion.

This story was originally published November 17, 2022 at 3:36 PM with the headline "Over 600 children were sexually abused by Catholic clergy in Maryland, report finds."