The Archdiocese of Philadelphia announced Tuesday that it had placed 21
priests on administrative leave from active ministry in connection with
credible charges that they had sexually abused minors.
The mass suspension was one of the single most sweeping in the history of the sexual abuse scandal in the Roman Catholic Church in the United States.
It follows a damning grand jury report
issued Feb. 10 that accused the archdiocese of a widespread cover-up of
predatory priests stretching over decades and that said as many as 37
priests remained active in the ministry despite credible allegations of
sexual abuse against them.
The church apparently found no credible charges against eight of the
priests.
As for the rest, three were already placed on administrative
leave, and five others would have been subject to leave but were no
longer active.
Two of those five no longer serve in the archdiocese but
are members of a religious order; the archdiocese said it had notified
the superiors of the religious order as well as the bishops of the
diocese in which they live.
Church officials, including Cardinal Justin Rigali, the archbishop of
Philadelphia, have spent the last few days informing the priests of
their status after an initial review of their cases by Gina Smith, an
outside lawyer hired by the church to re-examine their cases in light of
the grand jury report.
The cardinal said the suspensions were interim measures, pending fuller investigations of their cases.
He also apologized for the behavior of abusive priests.
“As we strive to move forward today,” Cardinal Rigali added, “I wish to
express again my sorrow for the sexual abuse of minors committed by any
members of the church, especially clergy.”
“I am truly sorry for the harm done to the victims of sexual abuse, as
well as to the members of our community who suffer as a result of this
great evil and crime,” he said.
The announcement Tuesday was a major embarrassment for Cardinal Rigali,
who, in response to the grand jury report, had initially said that there
were no priests in active ministry “who have an admitted or established
allegation of sexual abuse of a minor against them.”
The district attorney immediately indicted five people — two priests, a
former priest, a parochial school teacher and a high-ranking church
official.
Within 10 days of the grand jury report, Cardinal Rigali
placed three other priests whose activities had been detailed by the
grand jury on administrative leave.
The archdiocese said that the cases against the priests on
administrative leave involved a range of charges, “from allegations of
sexual abuse of a minor to boundary issues with minors.”
It did not
elaborate.