Photo credit: Roman Catholic Diocese of Lansing. (2024, October 25). In Wikipedia.
Patrick Smith of NBC News reported earlier today that almost 50 senior figures from the Catholic Church in Michigan have been accused of sexual misconduct dating back decades in a landmark report released Monday from the state’s top prosecutor.
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said in the report that investigators uncovered extensive allegations of misconduct in the Diocese of Lansing against children and adults since 1950.
The state’s report comes after a search warrant was obtained in 2018 and is based on interviews with alleged survivors of sexual misconduct, open-source media, more than 1,100 public tips, and millions of computer files from the diocese, as well as reports disclosed by the church.
In total, 56 people are accused in the report including 48 priests, three religious brothers, “an apparent former religious brother,” and four deacons. Most of the alleged misconduct took place in the 1970s and 1980s.
Eleven people have been charged in connection with the investigation, leading to nine convictions.
However, many of those listed in the new report are now deceased, and some living suspects cannot be prosecuted due to the statute of limitations or the failure of alleged victims to press charges, the attorney general said.
Rather than criminal convictions, the report’s objective is to provide “an acknowledgment to the victims of these alleged crimes” and to show the results of a huge, five-year investigation in which officers seized 220 physical boxes of files and searched 3.5 million digital documents.
“These reports are important, not just because we made a promise to the survivors years ago, but because victims, especially in cases like these where the assaults were perpetrated by entrusted members of a community, are often silenced — in some cases for decades or a lifetime,” Nessel said in a statement.
The attorney general’s statement added that the church has cooperated with the investigation and that the “willingness of the Diocese to provide information was instrumental in the compilation of the report.”
Those who have been convicted of crimes include Vincent DeLorenzo, 84, a Michigan priest who last year pleaded guilty to preying on a 5-year-old boy after a family funeral in 1987. He died in January this year while serving his sentence.
Timothy Crowley, a priest in Ann Arbor, was sentenced to one year in jail and five years’ probation after pleading guilty to two counts of second-degree criminal sexual conduct.
In response, Bishop Earl Boyea, head of the Diocese of Lansing since 2008, apologized to all the victims.
“Having read this long and detailed report, my heart breaks for all those who have suffered due to the evil of clerical sexual abuse which is a great betrayal of Jesus Christ, His Holy Church, the priesthood, and, most gravely, those victims — and their families — who were harmed physically, emotionally, but above all spiritually when they were so young,” he said in a statement.
“To all those injured by such criminal and immoral actions I say clearly and without hesitation: these terrible things should never have happened to you; I am so deeply sorry that they ever did; please be assured of my prayers, penance, love and support,” he said.
The Michigan attorney general’s investigation into Lansing is just one of several probes into alleged abuse within the church. The office has already published reports into Gaylord, Marquette, and Kalamazoo and has said it will eventually have published reports into all the state’s seven dioceses by 2026.
This report echoes other high-profile cases of clerical abuse. Notably, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles paid $880 million in settlements to survivors. As more investigations emerge, survivors and advocates continue to call for accountability, transparency, and systemic reform.
