Church leaders in the Archdiocese of Baltimore abused hundreds of children – mostly teenagers – for over six decades, a report released by the Maryland attorney general has revealed.
The report published on Wednesday was the latest harrowing instalment in the decades-long revelation of sexual abuse within the Roman Catholic Church.
With 463 pages, the report detailed the “pervasive and persistent abuse” by the clergy leaders in the archdiocese and the cover-ups by the church hierarchy.
Although, the victims’ group knew about the widespread abuse in the archdiocese and, to some extent, also acknowledged by the church leaders before the damning report was made public.
The report was released a few weeks after the Maryland Senate overwhelmingly voted to pass legislation repealing the statute of limitations on sexual abuse lawsuits.
The law would allow victims to file civil lawsuits no matter the time of their abuse.
The state’s Catholic Conference, a lobbying arm for the church, has opposed the bill, describing it as “unconstitutional and unfair.”
Terence McKiernan, President of the victims’ advocacy group Bishop Accountability, described the report as “a shocking addition to our understanding of clergy abuse of children in Baltimore.”
Mr McKiernan said the report includes the names of 33 clergy members not previously identified as abusers and asked Archbishop William E. Lori to add those names to the archdiocese’s existing public list of accused clergy members.
The report named 146 abusers connected to the church, mostly men who served as priests, and lists an additional 10 whose names were redacted as they may still be alive or have not been publicly identified or credibly accused by the archdiocese.
The report documents 156 clergy members who abused more than 600 children in the 1940s. It also redacts the names of some members of the hierarchy who helped protect them.
The report documents some parishes that contained multiple abusers from 1964 to 2004 while 11 child abusers cycled through St. Mark Parish in Catonsville while one victim reported that a priest named Robert Lentz gave him and another teenager alcohol and fondled them after taking them to a hockey game.
Another victim said he quit being an altar boy so he would not have to ride in the car with Mr Lentz, who died in 2007
