Cardinal Theodore Edgar McCarrick smiles during an interview with Reuters at the North American College at the Vatican. (REUTERS File Photo)
BOSTON, AUGUST 16 (Reuters): The organization representing U.S. Roman Catholic bishops on Thursday called for a Vatican-led probe backed by lay investigators into allegations of sexual abuse by former Washington Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, who resigned last month.
The call comes two days after a Pennsylvania grand jury released the findings of the largest-ever investigation of sex abuse in the U.S. Catholic Church, finding that 301 priests in the state had sexually abused minors over the past 70 years.
"Whatever the details may turn out to be regarding Archbishop McCarrick or the many abuses in Pennsylvania (or anywhere else), we already know that one root cause is the failure of episcopal leadership," Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, said in a statement.
The group said it would create a new way for victims of sexual abuse by members of the clergy to report allegations, and for those claims to be investigated without interference by the bishops who oversee priests who are accused of sex abuse.
It said that mechanism would involve more church members who were not members of the clergy but had expertise in law enforcement or psychology.
The Pennsylvania grand jury report on Tuesday was just the latest bombshell in a scandal that erupted onto the global stage in 2002, when the Boston Globe reported that for decades, priests had sexually assaulted minors while church leaders covered up their crimes.
Similar reports have since emerged in Europe, Australia and Chile, prompting lawsuits, sending dioceses into bankruptcy and undercutting the moral authority of the leadership of the Catholic Church, which has some 1.2 billion members around the world.
