Harrisburg, Pa., Oct 30, 2018 / 15:51 pm
A class-action lawsuit against all eight Latin-rite Catholic dioceses in Pennsylvania is seeking an admission from the Church that it covered up years of child sexual abuse, and the release of any Church records of abuse.
One of the plaintiffs, Ryan O'Connor, is an abuse victim and a current member of the Catholic Church whose children attend Catholic school. The other plaintiff, W.H., is a minor who is being represented by his mother.
The lawsuit accuses the dioceses of "public nuisance" and of failing to adhere to Pennsylvania's mandatory reporting requirements, claiming that the knowledge of sexual abuse in Pennsylvania was widespread and that the Church failed to "control, supervise, and report sexual abuse."
The information that the plaintiffs want the dioceses to hand over would plug gaps in the Aug. 14 Pennsylvania grand jury report that named over 300 priests accused of sexually abusing over 1,000 children since the 1940s. Some of the names of clerics in the report were redacted.