This has gotta stop

Rico says David O'Reilly and Nancy Phillips have an ugly article in the on-line version of the Philadelphia Inquirer:

A bomb was buried deep in last week's grand-jury report on clergy sex abuse in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia: At least 37 priests accused of molestation and other inappropriate behavior toward children have been allowed to remain in active ministry. "These simply are not the actions of an institution that is serious about ending sexual abuse of its children," the report said. "There is no other conclusion."
Cardinal Justin Rigali was quick to respond: "I assure all the faithful that there are no archdiocesan priests in ministry today who have an admitted or established allegation of sexual abuse of a minor against them," he said in a short letter to all 267 parishes in the 1.5 million-member archdiocese, sent hours after the report's release. Rigali's assurances did little to assuage concern among the many Catholics across the region reeling at the grand jury's other surprise: the indictment of Monsiegnor William Lynn, former secretary for clergy under Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua, on charges of endangering the welfare of children, a felony offense. Lynn, 60, is accused of putting children at risk by assigning known abusers to parishes. Through his lawyers, he has denied any wrongdoing. Also charged were two other priests, a defrocked priest, and a parochial-school teacher, accused of raping two altar boys, ages 10 and 14, in 1996 and 1998.
The grand jury's assertion that dozens of others facing abuse allegations are still in parish ministry brought angry demands from victim advocates for names and action: "Suspend these dozens of priests immediately," said David Clohessy, national director of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, who led a small rally outside archdiocesan headquarters in Center City on Friday. "Suspend first, investigate later."
The archdiocese declined Friday to respond to additional questions from The Inquirer about the grand jury's finding on suspect priests.
Three members of the independent advisory group responsible for reviewing abuse accusations for the archdiocese said that they were perplexed by the allegations that dozens of abusive priests remain in ministry. They said their board had considered allegations against more than fifty priests in the last eight years, that it most often had voted for the archdiocese to remove or take other action against the accused priests, and that its recommendations almost always had been adopted. "There were cases where we said we don't have enough evidence at this time, based on the evidence that has been presented to us, to say that this was an instance of sexual abuse," Ana Maria Catanzaro, who chairs the seven-member review board, said in an interview. "There are also some where we said we don't have enough evidence, but there's concern here about these behaviors, and we recommend that this person be removed or there be a safety plan."
Assistant District Attorney Mariana Sorensen, coauthor of the report, stood by its assertion that the archdiocese has tolerated and protected abusive priests in its ranks. The grand jury learned that credibly-accused priests remained in ministry from testimony by the head of the church's victim-assistance program, Sorensen said. In response to a subpoena, the archdiocese promptly provided the panel with personnel records on about twenty priests, she said, but failed to turn over seventeen others. Sorensen said the grand jury never saw those seventeen files, but it believed they contained complaints of abuse or other inappropriate behavior. She also said a section of the report stated erroneously that the archdiocese had allowed at least 41 priests accused or suspected of lewd behavior with children to remain in active ministry. The correct number is 37, she said, because four priests had been counted twice. From the records, the grand jury found that the Archdiocesan Review Board repeatedly had dismissed seemingly compelling cases, including some in which priests failed lie-detector tests.
Catanzaro and two other board members interviewed declined to discuss specific cases or their decisions: "The recommendations we made, they have been based on the evidence that was given to us."
The grand-jury report offered three cases that Sorensen described as "typical":
A 36-year-old man told church officials in 2007 that the Reverend Joseph J. Gallagher had repeatedly fondled him and talked about masturbation when the man served as an altar boy at St. Mark's parish in Bristol. The man supplied a detailed description of Gallagher's mother's house where, he said, the priest had abused him.
His allegations echoed an account brought forward a year earlier by a 44-year-old man, who said Gallagher had fondled him on a school trip in second grade and had discussed masturbation while in the confessional.
The Archdiocesan Review Board dismissed those allegations because the man had told church officials that he believed the incidents had taken place in 1968 or 1969. Because Gallagher did not arrive at the parish until 1970, the board called the allegation unsubstantiated.

Rico says there's more (if you have the stomach for it) here.