PA church scandal draws similarities to 1990s Dallas Catholic Diocese scandal
A grand jury report into child sexual abuse in the Catholic Diocese in Pennsylvania has rocked the church.
The report reveals more than 1,000 children were sexually abused by some 300 priests over the last seven decades. Since the report was made public Tuesday, the attorney general's office has received over 150 calls and emails from people wanting to tell their stories and seek justice.
But the revelations may remind some in Dallas of the Catholic Diocese scandal in the late 1990s. The massive sex abuse investigation in Pennsylvania is eerily reminiscent of a pedophile priest scandal 21 years ago that almost bankrupted the Dallas Catholic Diocese.
In July 1997, Tahira Merritt was on a team of lawyers led by Wendell Turley suing the Catholic Diocese of Dallas for covering up the actions of a pedophile priest. Eleven altar boys claimed they were molested for years by father Rudy Kos.
The unprecedented jury award of $119 million left the Dallas diocese on the brink of bankruptcy, sending shock waves all the way to the Vatican. Kos was later convicted and sentenced to life in prison.
"It's healing in a sense of the truth is out and the people that are responsible are being exposed,” Merritt said.
Merritt says several of the Kos survivors have called her reacting to the grand jury report in Pennsylvania. Unfortunately, she says not much has changed since the Kos verdict.
"The church didn't willingly give those files up,” she said. “It was because of the law enforcement community and the attorney general there that took action to expose the criminal conduct of the cover-up."
Dallas Bishop Edward Burns was not in Dallas at the time of the Kos verdict, but the Pennsylvania native addressed the sex abuse scandal in his home state on Tuesday. He promised that his current diocese is still addressing the issue of protecting children.
"I know that words alone will not address this issue and I am in the planning stages of taking some steps here in the Diocese of Dallas," Burns said. "These actions will be detailed in the near future after consultation with our Diocesan Review Board."
READ MORE: Dallas Bishop Edwards Burns addresses Pennsylvania Catholic sex abuse scandal
"The bishops can talk about transparency all day, but those are words,” Merritt said. “And unless they put it into action that really survivors can heal from, it's not going to change."
The jury that awarded nearly $120 million to the victims wrote a note to the diocese saying that any rumors or suspicions of any kind of abuse must be reported to law enforcement. They said there should be a written policy of acceptable behavior for priests and parishioners that should be made available to anyone that asks for it.