Vatican knew of abuse cover-up, prosecutor reiterates

HARRISBURG (AP) — Pennsylvania’s attorney general is repeating his accusation that the Vatican was complicit in the cover-up of the sexual abuse of children by Roman Catholic priests.

Attorney General Josh Shapiro’s latest comments about the Vatican came during TV appearances Tuesday.

A state grand jury report released two weeks ago found that hundreds of priests in Pennsylvania had molested more than 1,000 children over the past 70 years. Shapiro said at the time that a church cover-up reached to the Vatican.

The report revealed no internal Vatican documents and provided scant detail about the Vatican’s role, beyond describing confidential reports that bishops made to the Vatican about abusive priests.

Pope Francis last year acknowledged the Catholic Church was slow to realize the damage done by abusive priests and said the decades-long practice of moving pedophiles around rather than sanctioning them was to blame.