Attorney General releases report on sex abuse by Priests in the Archdiocese of Baltimore and coverup committed by the top leadership of the Catholic Church
The ways in which abusers preyed upon their victims varied widely, but all took advantage of the position of authority and respect afforded priests and other clergy in Catholic communities. Parents often gave priests unfettered access to their children because they trusted clergy as spiritual leaders and men of virtue. A victim of Henry O’Toole described what an honor it was to be selected to work in the rectory on Sundays and how proud her family was. When she was alone with him in the rectory, he opened her shirt and fondled her. In the aftermath of her divorce, a victim’s mother turned to Jerome Toohey to provide support and counsel to her son. Toohey proceeded to sexually abuse the boy for three years. John Wielebski was another priest who sexually abused children who came to him for counseling. Chillingly, one of his victims was sent to Wielebski because of earlier sexual abuse. Robert Hopkins preyed upon an altar boy who volunteered to open the rectory in the mornings and assist with the mass. Hopkins was so trusted by the family that the victim’s parents let their son sleep overnight at the rectory. Hopkins raped him for five years.
THE CHESAPEAKE TODAY – ALL CRIME ALL THE TIME – Copyright 2020
Introduction
In 2018, the Maryland Office of the Attorney General launched a Grand Jury investigation into the Archdiocese of Baltimore, examining criminal allegations of child sexual abuse by clergy, seminarians, deacons, and employees of the Archdiocese. The Office of the Attorney General also set out to investigate efforts by the leadership of the Catholic Church to hide sexual abuse. The Grand Jury of Baltimore City issued subpoenas to the Archdiocese, as well as to individual parishes, religious orders, and St. Mary’s Seminary. Hundreds of thousands of documents dating back to the 1940s were produced in response to the subpoenas, including treatment reports, personnel records, transfer reports, and policies and procedures. Additionally, the Office of the Attorney General created an email address and telephone hotline for persons to report information about clergy abuse. Over three hundred people contacted the office, and Office of the Attorney General investigators reached out and interviewed hundreds of victims and witnesses. Many of those who came forward had told their story before; some came forward for the first time. The incontrovertible history uncovered by this investigation is one of pervasive and persistent abuse by priests and other Archdiocese personnel. It is also a history of repeated dismissal or cover up of that abuse by the Catholic Church hierarchy. While every victim’s story is unique, together they reveal themes and behaviors typical of adults who sexually abuse children, and of those who enable abuse by concealing it. What was consistent throughout was the absolute authority and power these abusive priests and church leadership held over victims, their families, and their communities. Abusers often singled out children who were especially isolated or vulnerable because of shyness, lack of confidence, or problems at home, and they presented themselves as protectors and friends of the children and their families. Abusers preyed upon the children most devoted to the church: the altar servers and choir members, those who participated in church youth organizations and the Scout troops, and especially those who worked in the rectories answering telephones in the evening and on the weekends. They groomed the victims with presents and special attention. They told their victims the abuse was “God’s will” and that no one would doubt the word of a priest. Some threatened that the victim or victim’s family would go to hell if they told anyone. They attempted to normalize sexual behavior as “rough housing.” When confronted, they denied the behavior if plausible. If denial was impossible, they would minimize the extent of the abuse and describe it as weakness or aberration.
As the case descriptions in this Report make clear, 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. Time and again, members of the Church’s hierarchy resolutely refused to acknowledge allegations of child sexual abuse for as long as possible. When denial became impossible, Church leadership would remove abusers from the parish or school, sometimes with promises that they would have no further contact with children. Church documents reveal with disturbing clarity that the Archdiocese was more concerned with avoiding scandal and negative publicity than it was with protecting children.
Attorney General Report
Until recent decades, church officials who received complaints of abuse behaved no better. Time and again, bishops and other leaders in the church displayed empathy for the abusers that far outweighed any compassion shown to the children who were abused. These leaders repeatedly accepted the word of abusers over that of victims and their families. They conflated pedophilia with alcoholism and other substance use disorders, and they exhibited a misplaced reliance on “treatment.” When “investigations” were conducted, they were done by clergy who were neither trained as investigators nor independent of the church. These “investigators” typically questioned only the victim and abuser and made little or no attempt to seek corroboration or evidence of additional victims. They afforded the abuser’s denial equal or greater weight than the victim’s allegations. In some cases where even the most inadequate of investigations revealed undeniable abuse, the Archdiocese removed the abuser from the parish, but gave either no reason or a false reason for the removal. In many cases, the abuser was transferred—often multiple times—to another parish without warning to parishioners of the prior abuse.
This report seeks to document this long and sordid history.
Unfortunately, most of the abusers and those who concealed their wrongdoing are dead and no longer subject to prosecution. While stories of this abuse have been documented by victims, advocacy groups, investigative journalists, and others, we hope to make public for the first time the enormous scope and scale of abuse and concealment perpetrated by the Archdiocese of Baltimore. While it may be too late for the victims to see criminal justice served, we hope that exposing the Archdiocese’s transgressions to the fullest extent possible will bring some measure of accountability.
Approach to Inclusion in this Report The Office of the Attorney General has included in this Report every current or former Catholic clergy member, seminarian, deacon, member of a Catholic religious order, or other employee of the Archdiocese who has been the subject of credible allegations of child sexual abuse in Maryland known to this Office. In deciding whether to include an alleged abuser, the Office of the Attorney General relied upon records received in response to its Grand Jury subpoena to the Archdiocese of Baltimore, statements of victims and witnesses who wished to be interviewed, and materials already in the public record. In some instances, the only evidence available was the records provided by the Archdiocese. The report includes persons never assigned to the Archdiocese of Baltimore but the focus is on those priests, deacons, sisters and non-clerical employees for whom the Archdiocese of Baltimore had some oversight or simply had records related to their abuse. The Report is comprehensive with regard to members of the clergy, and also includes a number of non-clerical abusers like John Merzbacher to demonstrate that the secrecy and cover-up was not limited to clergy. Based on our review of this evidence, we have included 156 abusers determined to have been the subject of credible allegations of abuse. We have also included at the end of the report a list of priests and other personnel who served in some capacity or resided within the Archdiocese of Baltimore but were listed as credibly accused in connection with child sexual abuse outside of Maryland. We have indicated, to the extent we can ascertain, when and where the abuse took place, and the diocese and/or order that has listed them as credibly accused. This Report details decades of criminal conduct. The individuals and institutions documented in this Report preyed upon and harmed vulnerable children. This Report does not, however, constitute a criminal indictment.
Choice of Language The children who have been sexually abused are not named even in instances where they have spoken publicly about the abuse. This Report uses the term “victim” rather than “survivor” in order to highlight the criminal acts of those who hurt them. Although the definition of rape and sexual abuse changed over the period covered in this Report, any penetration of a child that involves the genitals of the abuser or the victim is described as rape. Throughout this Report, references to the Archdiocese or other entity making mandatory reports or disclosures indicates compliance with Maryland’s reporting requirements. Overview of the Archdiocese of Baltimore
The Diocese of Baltimore has enjoyed a special prominence in the history of the Roman Catholic Church in America. The City of Baltimore was the first seat of the United States Catholic Church removed from the authority of the English Catholic Church, and in 1789 the Diocese of Baltimore became the first diocese established in the United States. John Carroll of Maryland was the first American bishop, and in 1808, the Pope made Baltimore an Archdiocese. Until that year, when the Pope also created the dioceses of Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Bardstown, the entire United States Catholic church existed within the Baltimore Diocese. Although additional dioceses were created over the next century, as the country grew both geographically and demographically, the Baltimore Archdiocese retained a primacy within the hierarchy of the Church. The Archdiocese of Baltimore does not encompass the entirety of the State; in addition to the City, it includes nine counties in central and western Maryland (Allegheny, Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Carroll, Frederick, Garrett, Harford, Howard, and Washington counties).3 These boundaries have not changed since 1939, remaining static over the period of criminal activity described in this Report. According to its website, the Archdiocese has 153 parishes and missions, 59 schools, and at least 24 Catholic orders of men and 26 Catholic orders of women operating in some capacity. Two seminaries, St. Mary’s Seminary in Baltimore City and Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in Emmitsburg, also remain active. During the period of time covered in this Report, the following men served in the position of Archbishop: Patrick Keough (1947-1961); Lawrence Shehan (1961-1974); William Borders (1974-1989); William Keeler (1989-2007); Edwin O’Brien (2007-2011); and William Lori (2012-present).4
List of Abusers
Father Louis Affrica
Father James Avant
Father Bruce Ball
Father John Banko
Father Michael Barnes
Father Thomas Bauernfeind
Father Vincent Bechtel
Father Ronald Belschner
Father Thomas Bevan
Father Maurice Blackwell
Father Louis Bonacci
Father John Bostwick
Reverend H. Cornell Bradley
Father William Braun
Father Laurence Brett
Father Frederick Brinkmann
Stephen Brotzman
Father Wayland Brown
Father Gerard Bugge
Father Robert Callahan
Father John Carney
Monsignor John Corbett
Father Brian Cox
Father Charles Coyle
Father Fernando Cristancho
Father Robert Cullen
Father Joseph Davies
Father Richard Deakin
Father Alfred Dean
Father Donald Dimitroff
Brother Francis Dolan
Father James Dowdy
Father Robert Duerr
Father John Duggan1
Father Frederick Duke
Father Walter Emala
Father Francis Ernst
Father Luigi Esposito
Father Terence Evans
Father Alfred Ewanowski
Father Kenneth Farabaugh
Father Alphonsus Figlewski 1 The John Duggan identified as an abuser in this Report (a Jesuit priest) is not the same person as the late Archdiocese of Baltimore Chancellor John Duggan. iv
