DC Attorney General Investigates Clergy Abuse

By Abby Anderko

The Washington, D.C. attorney general’s office announced on Tuesday that it has begun an investigation into the sexual abuse by Catholic Church clergy in the Archdiocese of Washington. This comes after August’s Pennsylvania grand jurors report that shook the nation, announcing its list of over 300 priests who victimized more than 1,000 children in the past 60 years.

The Pennsylvania Grand Jury report released August 14th was the result of a two-year investigation by the grand jury into widespread sexual abuse of children within six Catholic dioceses in Pennsylvania, and includes the cover-up between senior Church officials of Pennsylvania and the Vatican. Former archbishop of the Washington Diocese Donald Wuerl was not accused of abuse, but as Bishop of the Pittsburgh Diocese from 1988 to 2006, his potential involvement with the cover-up has been scrutinized.

Wuerl went to the Vatican earlier in September to meet with Pope Francis about resigning as archbishop. Now at age 77, Wuerl submitted his letter of resignation to the Catholic Church over two years ago as all archbishops do when they turn 75.

Four days after Pope Francis accepted Wuerl’s resignation, the Washington Archdiocese released a list of 31 names of clergy with credible accusations of sexual abuse of minors. On this list are 31 priests who have served in the Washington archdiocese since 1949. Along with their names, the archdiocese released the time that each priest served in ministry and their criminal records.

Former-cardinal Theodore McCarrick, who resigned from his cardinalship this summer amid sexual abuse allegations, is not included on this list, as he was not in the archdiocese at the time when the abuse allegations occurred. McCarrick was the first ever U.S. cardinal to resign.

The attorney general’s office was influenced by events occurring as far back as 2016, when the Pennsylvania Grand Jury first began meeting.  In July 2016, the Pennsylvania attorney general began the grand jury investigations into six Catholic dioceses in Pennsylvania and their history of past sexual abuse of children. From there, the first priest was accused in July 2016, and dioceses began releasing statements about their clergy with histories of sexual abuse of minors.

In July 2018, almost two years to the day of the opening of the Pennsylvania grand jury investigation, the state Supreme Court ordered the release of the report that names over 300 “predatory priests.” The report was finally released on August 14, and since then, 13 states and the District of Columbia have launched statewide investigations into clerical sexual abuse and misconduct. These states are- Missouri, New York, New Jersey, Kentucky, New Mexico, Illinois, Nebraska, Wyoming, Vermont, Maryland, Florida, Michigan, and Virginia – and the list continues to grow.

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser has expressed support for the attorney general’s investigation, urging “him to find out anything that we can about wrongdoing.” The Washington Archdiocese has also released statements saying that the Archdiocese “remains committed to a collaborative and transparent review process because there is not now, and has not been for decades, any problem of abuse of minors by clergy of the Archdiocese of Washington.”

The D.C. attorney general’s office encourages survivors of sexual abuse to come forward and get help and support through their resources. People can either go to the website (reportclergyabusetoDCAG.com) or to the hotline created by the D.C. U.S. attorney.