Pennsylvania bishop enters accord with federal prosecutor on sex-abuse response
March 07, 2017
Bishop Mark Bartchak of Altoona-Johnstown, Pennsylvania, has agreed with a federal prosecutor on a “collaborative framework” to respond to sex-abuse complaints in the diocese, which had been the subject of a local prosecutor’s probe.
Last year Pennsylvania’s attorney general, Kathleen Kane, released a report showing evidence of sexual abuse by dozens of priests in the diocese, involving hundreds of children. The report was harshly critical of the response by two former bishops of Altoona-Johnstown: Bishop James Hogan, who led the diocese from 1966 to 1986 (and died in 2005), and Bishop Joseph Adamec, who led the diocese from 1987 to 2011. Bishop Adamec—who was charged with concealing evidence of abuse—refused to testify before a grand jury.
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