For the past 2 years, the Pennsylvania Attorney General has empaneled a Grand Jury to investigate the criminal and profound moral lapses of the Catholic Church within his jurisdiction. The AG never expected that the investigation would be so labor- and time-intensive, certainly not that it would take over 2 years to complete, but every new cache of records discovered in every dioceses brought more and more sordid details to light. The end result was a comprehensive, sickening report of over 900 pages covering 70 years, naming over 300 priests victimizing over 1000 innocents that has rocked the Catholic Church far beyond the borders of the Keystone State. The Church’s hierarchy is scrambling for cover, as you would expect, but this time it seems like the Catholic Church’s laypeople, the Church’s congregants, are finally disgusted and looking for alternatives.

In the few days since this report has been released, much has been written and spoken on the horrors the grand jury uncovered. The possible difference between all of those essays and articles and my writing is that I grew up in that specific environment. I was a Catholic boy in Pennsylvania. Altar boy. Attended mass every day while in grade school. Educated in a Catholic elementary school, high school, and University – all in Pennsylvania. That church that is pictured at the top of this essay was my church – Saint Gabriels Church in Hazleton, Pa. That church is mentioned frequently in the Grand Jury report. One of the priests mentioned in the report was the assistant pastor at St. Gabes. Another was the assistant pastor at Holy Trinity while I was a student in the elementary school. Another pedophile in the report was part of the athletic department of my high school. So, you see, this report hit home – my home.

Except for weddings and funerals, I haven’t set foot in a Catholic Church in over 40 years. Still, this report hit me hard. I’ve read most of the 900 pages and all of the section having to do with the Scranton Dioceses. The pervasiveness of this sexual child abuse is frightening. Perhaps, even worse, is the calculated and uniform actions taken by the Bishops in covering up these crimes against children and allowing an army of perverts continued access to the most vulnerable population imaginable. Paying off victims, intimidating mothers and children through the authority of the Church, mandating silence from fellow priests, and transferring miscreants to new, unsuspecting parishes were just some of the methods used that allowed this abhorrent activity to continue and even thrive for 7 decades.

I cannot convey even a fraction of what is in the Grand Jury report. If you’re interested, you can find it online. Once you start reading, particularly the section on the Bishop’s responses, you won’t be able to stop.

Let me tell you a bit about these 3 priests that I knew:

Father Deviney: Deviney was an assistant Pastor at St. Gabes when I was a young boy. He was kind of a friend of the family. I remember him being at our house a few times and my older sisters, who were in high school, really liked him. He seemed decent and there were never any subsequent rumors about him, except for alcoholism, but if you removed all of the alcoholics from the Priesthood what would be left? In the report, Deviney is accused by a woman as having put his hand on her thigh when she was 17 and then taking advantage of her years later when she went to him for counseling after losing her baby and marriage. The Dioceses decided the complaint was unsubstantiated.

Father Homer: Homer was assistant Pastor at Holy Trinity when I was in the elementary school there and I was one of his altar boys. He was strange – not a very nice man. Homer had a terrible temper and just seemed mean to me as a kid. He left after about a year and then returned and was Pastor at Holy Trinity for 13 years, until he resigned. He resigned and went to a convent. Let me tell you something about the Church – Pastors don’t just resign and go to a convent unless there is something that not even these Bishops can stomach. The report details 3 complaints against Homer. The first 2 were almost identical: twice Homer was in a locked office with a girl 14 years of age (2 different girls at 2 different times) for over an hour discussing their bodies. For the first, he was telling her that, although 14, she really had a body of an 18 year old as he was inquiring about her breast and genital development and for the second girl he told her that next time they were in the office, he would need to undress her. After these 2 complaints, Homer was given psychiatric therapy for a few months and then reassigned to a new parish. Later, Homer was accused of making continual, unwanted advances to a young woman in his parish. Homer was a real model to which young Catholic men should aspire.

Father Angelo: Angelo was assigned to a different parish in Hazleton, but somehow wormed his way into all aspects of Bishop Hafey High School’s athletics. He was everywhere the boys were. Angelo’s big hook was that he had access to a cabin somewhere in the country and he would select 3 boys to take on these weekend trips with him. Usually, it was the same 3 boys. This was priest back in the early 70’s, so the rest of us didn’t think there was anything unusual about these trips. In fact, there was a certain amount of grumbling about why the same 3 always got to go – seemed a pretty special deal for them. How come we never got to go? The report names Angelo as being accused of molesting a young boy. In my opinion, Angelo was a serial pedophile who ruined a lot more lives than just that one boy.

So those were 3 of the men who were supposed to mold the minds and characters of young Catholics in Hazleton. Their actions didn’t really impact me, but you cannot stop thinking of how they might have. If you read the reports from the Pittsburgh Dioceses, you’ll be sick. Inhuman men in Roman collars, all the while protected by their Bishops in partnership with complicit and complacent law enforcement. How anyone can set foot in a Catholic Church after this is beyond my comprehension.

I was raised Catholic – pretty devoutly Catholic, too. Catholic teachings and dogma are still part of my being, though I’m not practicing. My father lived his whole life Catholic. He was a former altar boy, never missed mass, skipped meat on Friday, observed Lent – the whole gamut. But my Dad never liked priests. He never ran them down in his family’s presence nor said much derogatory about them, but he never liked them. That much was clear. He was right.

By the way, I don’t like Bishops much either.