A grand jury that investigated the Philadelphia archdiocese for more than three years has concluded that two former archbishops orchestrated a systematic cover-up spanning four decades that managed to successfully shield from prosecution 63 priests who had sexually abused hundreds of children. The Philadelphia grand jury used blunt language to describe the sex abuse uncovered during the investigation, which they said was often recorded by the archdiocese in more than 45,000 pages of documents from secret archdiocese archives with such "delicate euphemisms" as "inappropriate touching." "We mean rape," the grand jury report said. "Boys who were raped orally, boys who were raped anally, girls who were raped vaginally." [...] "The evidence before us established that archdiocese officials at the highest levels received reports of abuse," the report said. The diocese, according to report, "chose not to conduct any meaningful investigation of those reports" and "left dangerous priests in place or transferred them to different parishes as a means of concealment. ... They chose to protect themselves from scandal and liability rather than protect children from the priests’ crimes."

The grand jury said that because of the statute of limitations in Pennsylvania, the investigation would not result in indictments of priests for crimes such as rape, sexual assault and corruption of minors. And because of the way the archdiocese is set up legally, as an unincorporated association rather than a corporation, its officials also could not be prosecuted for crimes such as endangering the welfare of children, intimidation of victims and witnesses, and obstruction of justice. "As a result, these priests and officials will necessarily escape criminal prosecution," the report said. "We surely would have charged them if we could have done so."

[This article from the National Catholic Reporter goes much further than most in detailing what the offending priests did and how the Church covered it up; if you've skipped all previous reports on this story, read this one. Or read the report itself. This article, however, fails to mention that the order to silence reports of child rape and transfer clergy child rapists to new parishes came from the Pope. This wasn't an anomaly, this was policy. Because when an invisible monster that lives in the sky tells you that raping children is okay, it's okay - you not only can do it, you can get away with it.]