This August, a grand jury in Pennsylvania released a report revealing that over 1,000 young people had been sexually abused by over 300 priests in Pennsylvania Catholic churches. Six out of eight Pennsylvanian dioceses were investigated — the other two had been previously investigated by a separate grand jury. This investigation looked into the last 70 ears of the church’s history.

Tragically, there may have been many more victims of church sex abuse, possibly numbering in the thousands, whose abuse has been more effectively covered up, or who did not come forward to report their abuse to the investigation.

The vast majority of the victims have reportedly been children — both pre-adolescent children and teenagers. In some cases, younger priests have reported being abused by older priests or by priests with authority over them.

Allegedly, the Catholic Church has been systemically covering up abuse for years, using tactics like transferring priests to other churches or even out of state if they are accused of abuse.

In most cases, priests are never held accountable for their crimes — if they are dismissed from their positions, church-goers are often told that their priest is on “sick leave” or similar. Many people claim that the Catholic Church actively protects priests who were accused of sexual abuse, in some cases letting them remind in office or giving them promotions.

Sadly, in many cases, the abuse took place so long ago that the statute of limitations prevents victims from holding their abusers accountable for their crimes. So far, only two cases in the massive report have led to criminal charges against Catholic priests.

Some Catholic priests continue to deny that there was any cover up of church sex abuse, even after the grand jury report was released last month. According to a New York Times article, Bishop David A. Zubik of Pittsburgh says that “There was no cover-up going on … I think that it’s important to be able to state that. We have over the course of the last 30 years, for sure, been transparent about everything that has in fact been transpiring.”

However, others suggest that the church’s cover-up of church sex abuse has been well-coordinated and systematic, going so far as to say that the church uses practically a “playbook for concealing the truth,” and minimizing the patterns of abuse. For example, when reports are made of rape, the word “rape” is often not mentioned at all, and the incident may instead be referred to only as “inappropriate contact.”

Though the grand jury report made last month made great strides to unraveling the abuse committed by Catholic priests, the problem is far from over. Allegedly, many priests are still being protected after they have been accused of church sex abuse, and many people say that the church is not making sufficient progress towards changing policies and preventing the epidemic of church sex abuse from continuing.

If you or a loved one were sexually abused by a Catholic priest in Pennsylvania, you may have a legal claim. As more information becomes available about the alleged rampant sexual abuse by priests in the Catholic church, lawyers are investigating potential claims to hold priests accountable for abuse and to hold the church liable for covering up a systemic problem of abuse.