Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown released a report Wednesday that accused 156 Baltimore Catholic clergy members of abusing more than 600 children over six decades. “From the 1940s through 2002, over a hundred priests and other Archdiocese personnel engaged in horrific and repeated abuse of the most vulnerable children in their communities while Archdiocese leadership looked the other way,” the report said. The 463-page report, made public after a four-year investigation, reported the abuse in nauseating detail and named several of the offending priests. It also indicated that the sexual misconduct was so widespread that some kids were abused by more than one member of the clergy. All the while, Church leadership repeatedly avoided acknowledging the problem, according to the report. “Time and again, members of the Church’s hierarchy resolutely refused to acknowledge allegations of child sexual abuse for as long as possible,” the report read. The state found more than 600 children that were known to have been abused, but Brown’s findings estimate that the real number is likely much higher.
