Seven Ways to Screw Children Delicately - The Pennsylvania Catholic Priest's Guide to Kiddie Rape

Pennsylvania grand jury spelled out 7 practices dioceses used to hide the truth about predator clergy

The statewide grand jury that determined hundreds of priests in five Pennsylvania Catholic diocese molested some 1,000 children over the decades described a typical pattern followed by church leaders when they were confronted with abuse allegations:

• Use euphemisms to describe sexual assaults in diocese documents. Never say “rape”; say “inappropriate conduct” or "boundary issues.”
• Don’t conduct investigations with properly trained personnel. Instead, assign fellow clergy members to ask inadequate questions and make credibility determinations about the colleagues with whom they live and work.
• Send priests for “evaluation” at church-run psychiatric treatment centers. Allow these experts to diagnose whether the priest was a pedophile, based largely on the priest’s self-reports and regardless of whether the priest had actually engaged in sexual conduct with a child.
• When a priest is removed, don’t say why. Tell parishioners that he is on sick leave or suffering from nervous exhaustion. Or say nothing at all.
• Even if a priest is raping children, provide him housing and living expenses, although he may be using these resources to facilitate more sexual assaults.
• If a predator’s conduct becomes known to the community, don’t remove him from the priesthood. Instead, transfer him to a new location where no one will know he is a child abuser.
• Don’t tell the police.Child sexual abuse, even short of actual penetration, is and has for all relevant times been a crime. But don’t treat it that way; handle it as a personnel matter, “in house.”