Cronkite school of journalism at
Arizona state university.
Geoff: More than 150 catholic
priests and others associated
with the archdiocese of
Baltimore sexually abused over
600 children, often escaping
accountability.
That is according to a
long-awaited report from the
Maryland attorney general's
office, revealing the horrific
scope of abuse and spending some
a decades.
The report accuses church
leaders of decades of cover-ups
and paints a damning portrait of
the archdiocese which is the
oldest Roman catholic diocese in
the country.
Anthony brown is the attorney
general of Maryland and joins us
now.
Thank you for being with us.
Your investigation found that
over 600 young people from
preschoolers to young adults
suffered sexual abuse and
physical torture in some cases
by clergy members from the
1940's through 2002. That's the
year at which this investigation
ended.
Clergy in some cases preyed on
children who were recovering in
hospitals.
Give us a sense of the full
picture of depravity and evil
that your investigation
uncovered in the church.
>> That's a tall order in that
we interviewed as you mentioned,
close to 600 survivors.
Many other witnesses, we
reviewed hundreds of thousands
of documents that were produced
to us for the grand jury
subpoena by the archdiocese of
Baltimore.
And what we saw and we tried to
detail in the report was
pervasive abuse by priests,
seminarians, deacons and other
employees of the archdiocese.
And this intentional effort by
the catholic church hierarchy to
conceal this abuse.
There was physical abuse and
mental abuse.
There was sexual abuse and rape.
And this occurred between the
abusers who add positions of
power and authority, and some of
the most vulnerable people in
our society, children, children
who are devoted to the catholic
church, and yet were abused over
and over again by the very
people who are entrusted to care
for these children.
Geoff: On the matter of
accountability, only one person
has been indicted through this
investigation, as I understand
it, many of the abusers are now
dead, but in the report at least
10 abusers' names are redacted.
There are other catholic
officials whose names are
redacted in the report.
But what accounts for that?
Why are these people's names
their identity shielded from
public view if the focus is on
transparency and accountability?
>> Where the information that is
included in the report came to
us solely through the grand jury
process, the subpoena documents,
and the documents that are
subpoenaed to a grand jury are
confidential and can only be
released upon order of the
court.
So the circuit court for the
city of Baltimore has instructed
us to redact certain names to
give those individuals notice
and an opportunity to review the
materials and the context in
which their name would be
disclosed.
And then they have an
opportunity to file objections
to the court.
And I can assure you that our
office will be filing a an
argument to disclose those names
if the individuals resist that
disclosure, but ultimately, it
will be the decision of the
circuit court of the city of
Baltimore.
Geoff: In preparing to speak
with you, Mr. Attorney general,
we spoke with David Lorenz, he's
a Maryland state director of the
survivors network of those
abused by priests also known as
snap, and he said that this
report gives him some sense of
relief.
>> Vindication is too weak a
word and I don't have a better
word.
It is a release, it is
vindication.
It's being able to take that off
and hand it to someone else and
say this does not -- the weight
of this abuse does not belong on
me.
It belongs on someone else, and
it belongs at the foot of the
catholic church.
Geoff: I'm sure you've heard a
similar sentiment from many of
the survivors that you've spoken
with.
Mr. Lorenz wants to know when
your office plans to investigate
the two other diocese include
parts of Maryland, the
archdiocese of Washington DC and
the diocese of Wilmington
Delaware, which covers part of
the eastern shore.
>> I think Mr. Lorenz for his
advocacy on behalf of survivors,
I had the privilege to meet with
the survivors yesterday in my
office before we publicly
release this report.
And it was clear to me that for
many, if not most of the
survivors, yesterday was truly a
day of reckoning and public
accounting, a detailed report of
what they had to endure at the
time of the abuse and throughout
their lives since.
I tried to convey to them that
we are listening.
We believe them and we will
continue to be for them.
So four years ago when the
investigation was initiated by
my predecessor, Dr. Brian frosh
of the archdiocese of Baltimore,
the attorney general also
initiated investigations of the
archdiocese of Washington DC and
the diocese of Wilmington,
Delaware, those investigations
are ongoing. We have issued
subpoenas.
We have not sat idle.
My predecessor I think made a
important and sound decision to
focus on the archdiocese of
Baltimore so that we could
complete that report and make it
public as soon as possible.
And now we will continue the
efforts to investigate the
archdiocese of Washington DC and
of Wilmington Delaware.
Geoff: When it comes to holding
the archdiocese accountable,
priests to abuse children are
often known as the archdiocese
get little was done to stop
them.
There's some reporting by the
Baltimore sun and they found
that helpful.
In some cases, the church spent
more money on services for
abusive priests than they did
for the actual victims, mental
health services and so on.
What's the proper remedy? For
those who are looking for
accountability from the
archdiocese of Baltimore?
>> It is clear that the church
valued the denials are the
abusers over the claims the
, -- the claims, the complaints,
the credibility of the abuse.
There is no doubt about that.
We in our report, laid out two
recommendations, one of which
was for general assembly to
consider eliminating the statute
of limitations in civil actions
brought by survivors against the
abusers and against the
archdiocese of Baltimore.
Actually, the way that the
legislation was passed just an
hour after we released our
report, the general assembly did
pass that legislation and in all
child abuse cases, there's no
longer statute of limitations in
the state of Maryland.
That is a good step forward.
It will give those who are were
abused, the survivors, an
opportunity to bring civil
actions against their abusers
assuming that they're still
alive, and the catholic church.
Geoff: Anthony brown is the
attorney general for the state
of Maryland.
Thanks for being with us, sir.
>> Thank you.