The Kentucky State Attorney General announced that he will seek the State Legislature's permission to form a statewide grand jury to investigate Kentucky's Catholic dioceses in line with last month's damning report on Pennsylvania Catholic churches.
Deputy Attorney General J. Michael Brown said his office has been in contact with Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro and that his staff will "in the near future" draft legislation to put to lawmakers in Frankfort, the State’s capital.
"We are working to secure justice for individual survivors who have reached out to the Attorney General’s office," Brown said in a statement.
In response, the Archdiocese told the Courier Journal that "we have always cooperated with the authorities in our response to sexual abuse and will continue to do so."
The Attorney General's announcement followed a protest at the steps of the Cathedral of Assumption in downtown Louisville, in which about two-dozen Catholic sex abuse victims and their advocates gathered to condemn the Catholic Church.
The local protesters, who included parishioners, victims, social workers and ex-Catholics, said both the Archdiocese of Louisville and the Catholic Church as a whole have failed to support victims of sex abuse and to hold accountable complicit church staff.
Frank Diebold, a victim of abuse as an altar boy, drew a contrast between the way Papa John's handled its leader and how the Vatican is handling an accused cardinal.
Papa John's ousted their namesake and founder, John Schnatter, shortly after executives learned he used the n-word in a conference call.
"And the Catholic Church can't get rid of a cardinal,'' Diebold said. "Who's got more integrity? The pizza shop or the Catholic Church?"
Presuming the State Legislature will approve the investigation, there is every reason to expect that the findings will be as damning and damaging as the Pennsylvania investigation and report.
The scandal of homosexual Catholic Clergymen abusing minor males is not a localized phenomenon. That is becoming more and more evident as stories of abuse continue to be uncovered across the nation and in dioceses around the world.
The Catholic faithful will be hearing horrific accounts of abuse for what I believe will be the foreseeable future.
But the one glimmer of hope I offer as a reminder is this. Perhaps the Holy Spirit is truly at work in this moment of trial and challenge offer the Church a pathway to redemption and revival.
Let us continue to pray that this is truly the case.
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