Source: Jessica Kourkounis / Getty
Amid a still-boiling legal battle over a secret grand jury report into alleged Catholic clergy sex abuse across Pennsylvania, Attorney General Josh Shapiro has appealed to Pope Francis to persuade opponents to drop their bid to block the report’s release.
“Credible reports indicate that at least two leaders of the Catholic Church in Pennsylvania — while not directly challenging the release of this report in court — are behind these efforts to silence the victims and avoid accountability,” Shapiro wrote in a letter to the pope this week. “Your Holiness, I respectfully request that you direct church leaders to follow the path you charted … and abandon their destructive efforts to silence the survivors.”
The attorney general’s letter did not elaborate on which officials he thinks might be working to block the release of the report documenting what Shapiro describes as “widespread sexual abuse of children and a systemic coverup by leaders” in six Catholic dioceses.
Greg Burke, a spokesperson for the pope, said it was too early for the Vatican to comment.
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