“Despite some institutional reform, individual leaders of the church have largely escaped public accountability,” the grand jury says in the report. “Priests were raping little boys and girls, and the men of God who were responsible for them not only did nothing; they hid it all. For decades.”

What just happened?

Last week a grand jury in Pennsylvania released a 1,356-page report claiming that bishops, priests, and deacons within the Catholic Church in almost every diocese in Pennsylvania covered up child sexual abuse over a period of 70 years.

“Despite some institutional reform, individual leaders of the church have largely escaped public accountability,” the grand jury says in the report. “Priests were raping little boys and girls, and the men of God who were responsible for them not only did nothing; they hid it all. For decades.”

What is a grand jury report?

The grand jury is a jury of citizens that determines whether there is probable cause to believe that a crime was committed and that a specific person or persons committed it. If the grand jury finds probable cause to exist, then it will return a written statement of the charges called an indictment.

After the issuance of an indictment, the case moves to trial where the accused can then defend themselves against the charges brought against them before a petit jury (also called a trial jury).

According to Pennsylvania state law, any investigating grand jury, by an affirmative majority vote of the full investigating grand jury, may, at any time during its term submit to the supervising judge an investigating grand jury report. The judge to whom such report is submitted determines whether report is released as a public record.

What is a Catholic diocese?

The Catholic Church considers itself, as a whole, to be the “one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church of Christ” spread across various local churches, or parishes. These local branches in a particular geographic area—sometimes called “particular churches” or dioceses—are a “full expression of Roman Catholic Christianity in a given area.”

Dioceses usually follow local boundaries such as counties, and are usually centered on a metropolitan area or prominent city within that territory. An ecclesiastical leader called a bishop oversees each individual diocese. An archbishop administers an archdiocese, which is just a large diocese.

Dioceses are autonomous churches that cooperate through national conferences of bishops and are limited only to the authority of the pope or ecumenical council.

What is the difference between a bishop, priest, and deacon?

Although the report refers to abusive priests, those involved in the abuse and the conspiracy of silence included priests, deacons, and bishops.

Along with baptism and the Eucharist, one of the seven sacraments of the Catholic Church is the sacrament of ‘holy orders.” These holy orders consist of three levels of ordination with the church—deacon, priest, and bishop.

Deacons are ordained by a bishop not to the ministerial priesthood but to the ministry of service. Deacons may baptize, proclaim the gospel, preach the homily, assist the bishop or priest in Mass (i.e., the “celebration of the Eucharist”), assist at and bless marriages, and preside at funerals.

Priests have completed seminary and are ordained to celebrate Mass, hear confessions and give absolution, celebrate baptism, serve as the church’s witness at the “sacrament of Holy Matrimony,” administer “Anointing of the Sick,” and administer confirmation if authorized to do so by their bishop. The priest must promise obedience to the bishop in “service to God’s people.”

Bishops receive the “fullness of the Sacrament of Holy Orders” and become “successors of the Apostles.” A bishop belongs to the college of bishops and serves as the visible head or pastor of a diocese. As a college, the bishops oversee all the churches in union with and under the authority of the pope—the head of the college of bishops and the bishop of Rome. Only the pope has authority to discipline or remove bishops from their ministry.

What is a statute of limitation?

A statute of limitation is a law that forbids state prosecutors from charging someone with a crime that was committed more than a specified number of years ago. The general purpose of statutes of limitation is to make sure convictions occur only upon evidence (physical or eyewitness) that has not deteriorated with time. After the period of the statute has run, the criminal is essentially free. Some offenses, such as murder, have no statute of limitations.

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