Pittsburgh D.A. ends clergy abuse inquiry

File Photograph

Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua had been bishop of Pittsburgh, and the 8 priests served under him. 

The Allegheny County, Pa., district attorney has closed an inquiry into allegations of child sex abuse by priests who served under Cardinal Anthony J. Bevilacqua when he led the Roman Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh in the 1980s.

District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. reviewed the cases and “determined that none of the allegations merited criminal prosecution,” his spokesman, Mike Manko, said Friday.

The decision dims one spotlight on the retired Philadelphia archbishop as another is flaring across the state.

Zappala launched his probe in March, after Philadelphia prosecutors arrested four current and former priests on sex abuse and related charges and a grand jury report alleged that Bevilacqua and church officials had failed to remove abusive priests and help their victims.

Bevilacqua led the Pittsburgh diocese from 1983 to 1988, when he came to Philadelphia. As the clergy sex-abuse scandal was roiling the church nationally in 2002, his successor in Pittsburgh, Bishop Donald Wuerl, asked prosecutors to review eight allegations of child sex abuse by priests during Bevilacqua’s tenure.

At the time, Zappala’s office interviewed alleged victims and determined there was no crime to prosecute. The new review revisited those cases and reached the same conclusion, Manko said. He did not elaborate.

Bevilacqua, 88, has never been charged in connection with any abuse allegations and has been out of the limelight since retiring in 2003. But he remains a central figure in the Philadelphia case. Prosecutors want him to sit for a videotaped deposition that could be used at the priests’ trial next March.

The defendants include one of Bevilacqua’s top aides, Mgsr. William J. Lynn, who as secretary of clergy in Philadelphia for 12 years recommended assignments for priests throughout the archdiocese. Prosecutors have charged Lynn with child endangerment, saying he protected abusive priests or knowingly placed them in posts that gave them access to children.

In their report, the grand jurors said they wanted to hold Bevilacqua accountable. “The grand jurors have no doubt that his knowing and deliberate actions during his tenure as archbishop also endangered thousands of children in the Philadelphia Archdiocese,” they wrote.

Bevilacqua’s lawyers have maintained that the cardinal is too sick to testify. They say he suffers from cancer, dementia, anxiety and depression, and requires round-the-clock care.

William Sasso, Bevilacqua’s longtime lawyer, described for the grand jury a visit in which he said the cardinal struggled to recognize him.

“He was unable to focus on his current thoughts,” Sasso said, according to a transcript. “At times he was drifting off.”

Common Pleas Court Judge M. Teresa Sarmina has ordered the archdiocese to turn over two years of Bevilacqua’s medical records, and bring the cardinal to her courtroom next month so she can decide if he is competent.

Contact staff writer John P. Martin at 215-854-4774 or at jmartin@phillynews.com.

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  0 like this / 0 don’t • Posted 7:47 AM, 08/13/2011

  I think Pittsburgh needs and Independent Investigator because if there are Victims then there are PERPS

  — ABAZZ30

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  0 like this / 0 don’t • Posted 11:50 AM, 08/13/2011

  Click on these two sites or cut and paste into your browser. I have been investigating clergy sex abuse and cover ups by church hierarchy for over 22 years. One thing I know for sure, there are enough catholics and mobsters in PA that any crime can be covered up.

  http://www.yardbird.com/luna_murder_resembles_1932_PA_mob_hit.htm

  http://www.nytimes.com/1989/06/22/obituaries/joseph-a-bevilacqua-dies-at-70-rhode-island-judge-linked-to-mob.html

  Mike Ference

   

  — mikeference

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  0 like this / 0 don’t • Posted 11:56 AM, 08/13/2011

  It is pretty clear that this inquiry into the Pittsburgh diocese and Bevilacqua can not be considered independent from the diocese or the church, considering the fact the Stephen A. Zappala Jr is a member of the USCCB child protection review board.

  http://www.catechism.org/ocyp/nrb.shtml

  In order to expose the full truth and to protect kids today, an official independent grand jury investigation needs to be done into sex crimes against children and the cover up of these crimes.by Bevilacqua and the Pittsburgh diocese officials.

  Judy Jones, SNAP Midwest Associate Director,
  636-433-2511
  snapjudy@gmail.com
  “Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests” and all clergy.

  http://www.snapnetwork.org/

  — SNAPJudy

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  0 like this / 0 don’t • Posted 1:12 PM, 08/13/2011

  When do these retroactive investigations stop? If you have been a victim speak now or forever hold your peace. It’s always amazing how a 40, 50, and even 60 year old guy wakes up one day a suddenly announces to the world that he was abused by a Catholic priest but never said anyone or any authority in 30 or 40 years, and now by the way he wants to paid for emotional pain and suffering. In the mean time he has been living a normal life until he wakes up and wants to talk about the revelantion from 30 years ago he never mentioned before. It’s time to end all these investigation unless there is provable evidence that can be presented to a jury besides incredible stories. Moreover, all these “victims” are standing by to get paid for something they never talked about for 30 years.

  — Speak-truth-2-power

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  0 like this / 0 don’t • Posted 1:37 PM, 08/13/2011

  speak-truth-2-power , first do you know any ‘VICTIMS’ ? Second can you deny the ABUSE AND COVER UP TOOK PLACE AND THE ‘rcc’ hid behind their collars and the STATUE OF LIMITATIONS . Third do you know anything about PTSD ? Given the Pittsburgh’s DA position with the ‘rcc’ do you think the investigation may have been slanted ? If the ‘rcc’ has NOTHING TO HIDE THEN LET THEM SUPPORT PENDING LEGISLATION . Can you tell me what country the ‘rcc’ has not had VICTIMS?

  — ABAZZ30

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  0 like this / 0 don’t • Posted 2:39 PM, 08/13/2011

  DA would rather protect child predators and church hierarchy who covered up
  By Mike Ference

  If it weren’t such a serious matter, I would find it laughable that Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen Zappalla Jr. has announced plans to “revisit some of the matters” during the tenure of one-time Pittsburgh Catholic Bishop Anthony Bevilacqua now that the former cardinal of the Philadelphia archdiocese has been accused of transferring and possibly covering up crimes of priests accused of sexual abuse and never warning the unsuspecting parishioners in the new churches.

  Perhaps Zappalla can start by “revisiting” documentation that I provided years ago to two Allegheny County Detectives (Logan and Andrews) regarding an alleged cover-up that inspired the current McKeesport Police Chief to tell me that a grand jury investigation was merited. This case goes back to 1987, the last year Bevilacqua served in the Pittsburgh Diocese. The alleged cover-up involved a local priest giving an underage boy alcohol and drugs; there was a period of unconsciousness during which the boy may have been sexually abused, and then he eventually made his way to a city hospital. His parents were summoned, told what had happened and advised by medical staff not to report the alleged criminal activity.

  When I shared my research on this case years ago, Zappalla and his detectives did nothing except blow me off.

  My guess is that newspapers from the Philadelphia area with legitimate investigative reporters will break this story first. Zappalla and western PA publishers and editors who didn’t follow through on this years ago may be too busy removing egg from their face.

  — mikeference