[National Review] The Justice Department has launched an investigation into child sexual abuse by Catholic clergy in Pennsylvania, according to reports Thursday.Federal prosecutors have subpoenaed at least three dioceses in the state for documents on sexual-abuse cases and testimony from Church leaders.
A grand-jury report in August described allegations of child sexual abuse by 301 priests in six Pennsylvania dioceses affecting more than 1,000 children over the last 70 years. The state’s statute of limitations prevented all but two priests mentioned in the report from being charged with a crime.
Bishops and other Church leaders followed a "playbook for concealing the truth," pressuring victims not to report the abuse and convincing law enforcement not to investigate, the report found.