100px|Justin Cardinal Rigali Cardinal Justin Rigali announced Tuesday that the Archdiocese of Philadelphia is placing 21 priests on administrative leave following the release of a grand jury report that there were credible claims that the priests had sexually abused minors. The report, released February 10, accused the archdiocese of a decades long cover up. According to the grand jury, at least 37 priests had continued in their duties around children despite "substantial evidence of abuse against them". "We understand that accusations are not proof," the report said, "but we just cannot understand the Archdiocese's apparent absence of any sense of urgency." The grand jury had seen the files of only 20 priests, it said, and in those cases the archdiocese had dismissed credible allegations of abuse on trivial grounds, such as a victim failing to remember the year in which the priest served or the exact layout of the rectory . This mass suspension for sexual abuse is notable in that it is one of the largest in the history of the Roman Catholic Church in the U.S. The slow response of the Philadelphia Archdiocese to sexual abuse allegations goes against the National Conference of Catholic Bishops' own 2004 Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People which says any priest with creditable allegations should be removed immediately and investigation of the case should follow. David Clohessy, the director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), an advocacy group for survivors and their attorneys, said, "Many victims and Catholics in Philly, are left seriously wondering how effective the bishops' so-called reforms really are, if dozens and dozens of credibly accused priests in one archdiocese alone are kept in ministry for years."
100px|Justin Cardinal Rigali announced Tuesday that the is placing 21 priests on following the release of a report that there were credible claims the priests had minors. The report, released February 10, accused the archdiocese of a decades long cover up. According to the grand jury, at least 37 priests had continued in their duties around children despite "substantial evidence of abuse against them". "We understand that accusations are not proof," the report said, "but we just cannot understand the Archdiocese's apparent absence of any sense of urgency." The grand jury had seen the files of only 20 priests, it said, and in those cases the archdiocese had dismissed credible allegations of abuse on trivial grounds, such as a victim failing to remember the year in which the priest served or the exact layout of the . This mass suspension for sexual abuse is notable in that it is one of the largest in the history of the Roman Catholic Church in the U.S. The slow response of the Philadelphia Archdiocese to sexual abuse allegations goes against the own 2004 Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People which says any priest with creditable allegations should be removed immediately and investigation of the case should follow. David Clohessy, the director of the (SNAP), an advocacy group for survivors and their attorneys, said, "Many victims and Catholics in Philly, are left seriously wondering how effective the bishops' so-called reforms really are, if dozens and dozens of credibly accused priests in one archdiocese alone are kept in ministry for years."
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Cardinal Justin Rigali
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Archdiocese of Philadelphia
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administrative leave
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grand jury
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that
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sexually abused
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rectory
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National Conference of Catholic Bishops'
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Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests