An investigation into abuse by 150 priests in the Archdiocese of Baltimore will soon be made public.

The Maryland Attorney General will soon release the results of an investigation into abuse by 150 priests over eighty years.



SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

The Archdiocese of the Baltimore Catholic Church has been the subject of a sexual assault investigation. After a four-year grand jury investigation, the judge will soon release details of what children and young people have experienced over the past 80 years. Radio station WYPR member Scott Mosione received our report. And please note that during the next 3 1/2 minutes there are details of sexual abuse that may not be acceptable to some listeners.

SCOTT MOTION, BILIN: Jean Hargedon Wehner was only a teenager when Father Joseph Maskell allegedly bullied her at Baltimore High School in the 1960s.

JAN HARgedON VENER: He put a gun to my temple. He prostituted me. He raped me.

MOSIONE: Hargedon Vener was just one of 600 alleged victims found in a report by the Maryland Attorney General’s investigation into the activities of the Baltimore Archdiocese over the past 80 years. 158 priests appear in the report. Maskell was one of these priests, and Hargedon Vener says that at one point during the alleged repeated bullying of her, he unloaded bullets from a pistol and held it to her head.

HARgedON VENER: I can still hear the click of the trigger. And he said that if your father ever found out that you were fornicating, he would do it, but he would not leave any bullets with him.

MOSIONE: After a four-year investigation, the judge ordered the release of an edited version of the 456-page report on the archdiocese. Brian Frosch, a former Maryland attorney general who oversaw the grand jury investigation, says some people who were allegedly abused lived with fear, guilt and anxiety.

BRIAN FROSCH: We’ve heard from survivors that the abuse has changed their lives. It marked them for life.

MOTION: It often takes years for people to come to terms with abuse. A study by the medical journal BMC Public Health states that the average age of victims reporting sexual harassment is 52.

FROSH: You have to look back at the culture of the 1960s and 70s that didn’t really encourage these people to perform. In fact, many of them, when they came forward, were thrown back.

MOSIONE: The Archdiocese declined to be interviewed for this story, but Baltimore Archbishop William Laurie acknowledged her role in child sexual abuse in a YouTube video.

(SOUND FROM ARCHIVE RECORDING)

WILLIAM LAURIE: Once again, I offer my deepest apologies for their mistreatment by the clergy and others whose sinful and criminal acts have so greatly harmed them.

MOZION: The Maryland grand jury investigation is one of the few recent state investigations into the Catholic Church.

DAVID LORENZ: This is a growing body of evidence of a national disaster.

MOTION: David Lorenz, director of the Maryland Priestly Abuse Survivors Network, says the reports are a way for victims to grieve and hold the church to account.

Lorenz: This Catholic Church has a habit of underestimating the number of priests and does not change the way it works.

MOSIONE: Many states, including Maryland, are using investigations to rethink laws about how long after abuse victims can file lawsuits against their abusers or the organizations that harbor them. However, Jennifer Wortham, chair of the Global Collaborative, a network of children’s rights organizations, says civil lawsuit limits are only one piece of the puzzle. The decentralized nature of the nearly 200 dioceses and archdioceses in the United States makes it difficult to report and prosecute child sexual abuse.

JENNIFER WORTHAM: We need significant reform, and we can have uniform federal laws to protect children everywhere, because what applies to the Catholic Church applies to other non-profit organizations.

MOSIONE: Despite the outcome of the law, Jean Hargedon Vener, who was abused by her priest in Baltimore, says Maryland’s report will bring a sense of healing.

HARgedON VENER: This will prove the survivors right in front of their families and loved ones who didn’t always know how to believe such a terrible thing.

MOTSION: Victims of abuse are now preparing for when the judge finally releases the report, probably in the coming days or weeks.

For NPR news, I’m Scott Mosione from Baltimore.

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