(Image source from: 90.5 WESA)

Pennsylvania's attorney general and attorneys for contemporary and former clergymen came down on opposite sides over an endeavor by news organizations, to open an extensive report into child sexual abuse and efforts to cover it up in various Roman Catholic dioceses.

Attorney General Josh Shapiro said in a filing to the state Supreme Court supporting the release that his office opposes requests by unnamed parties to present their personal grounds, inquire witnesses and rewrite the grand jury report "in accordance with their preferred view of the facts." He argued that report should not be held up, calling it a concern of exceptional public interest.

"Hundreds of victims, thousands of parishioners and many members of the community are awaiting the report," Shapiro wrote. "The longer it is held, the greater the risk of undermining public confidence in the judicial system."

Shapiro called the priests criticism of the report "nothing more than a desperate attempt to stop the public from learning the truth about their abhorrent conduct." The longer the report is held, the greater the risk of undermining public confidence in the judicial system, he added.

The justice who supervised the statewide investigative grand jury ordered the report's release a month ago, but the Supreme Court on June 20 held it up, citing challenges to the release by numerous people named in it.

The clergy members told the justices that they previously filed petitions regarding "strikingly inaccurate observations and grossly mischaracterized conclusions, sometimes on the basis of multiple levels of hearsay, and often without the alleged victim having personally made any complaint."

The gross mischaracterizations, oversimplifications and outright erroneous conclusions in the report … must be corrected before the report is released, said current lawyers and retired clergy members.

Another filing by people describing themselves as Improperly Named Parties, including one who is dead, said the report should not be released because they and others "have not done anything that warrants naming or branding them as offenders."

The report concerns six of the state's Roman Catholic dioceses — Allentown, Erie, Greensburg, Harrisburg, Pittsburgh, and Scranton.

The grand jury supervising judge, Norman Krumenacker, delineated the probe as involving allegations of child sexual abuse, failure to report it, endangering the benefit of children and obstruction of justice by people associated with the church, local public officials and community leaders.

The grand jury has processed its term and has been disbanded.

By Sowmya Sangam