A priest who has served more than four decades overseeing four Pittsburgh parishes has been accused of clerical abuse. The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports that Father Robert Cedolia has been suspended from the ministry pending the outcome of an investigation into the accusations. Should the allegations of priest sex abuse be substantiated, his suspension will be permanent.

It is the first such accusation lodged against Cedolia since he began his service in 1978.

Few Details

Other than the name of the accused and the allegation itself, the Diocese of Pittsburgh has offered little information about the case. The allegation was filed by way of the diocese’s the Keystone State that was released the previous year. That report was the result of a two-year investigation into alleged sexual abuse of children by Catholic clergy across six Pennsylvania dioceses.

According to that report, some 300 clergy members are accused of sexually assaulting more than 1,000 children over 70 years. The Church itself was found to have engaged in tactics aimed at avoiding negative publicity and possible liability by transferring suspected abusers to other parishes and sending them to “treatment centers” for “rehabilitation,” according to the Associated Press.

A Worldwide Problem

Although the Pennsylvania grand jury report is one of the most comprehensive accounts of clerical abuse in the Roman Catholic Church to date, it highlights a much more widespread crisis across the globe. The scandal has even reached into the Vatican itself, as last year, Pope Francis dismissed two of his close advisers over abuse allegations, one of whom was a cardinal from Australia. The other, a high-ranking Church official in Santiago, Chile, is under investigation by local authorities for alleged failure to protect vulnerable youth who had been victimized by pedophile priests.

In addition to causing untold pain and misery for victims, the sex abuse scandal has cost the Catholic Church a great deal of credibility as members turn their backs on the 2,000-year-old institution. For example, an article published in The Week shortly after the release of the grand jury report noted that when the late Pope John Paul II visited Ireland, long a bastion of Roman Catholicism, in 1979, he was greeted by crowds of a million people or more. When Pope Francis arrived in 2018, only a small fraction of that number turned out.

Investigations Widen

Out of the more than 300 priests in Pennsylvania who have been accused of criminal assault and/or molestation against young people, only two so far have been imprisoned on criminal charges. Many alleged offenders are long dead, whereas other cases have passed the state’s criminal statute of limitations. A third suspect, an 88-year-old retired priest from Allegheny County, is currently awaiting trial on charges of sexual assault against a 10-year-old boy in 2001.

Cedolia has denied the allegations against him. At this point, it bears mentioning that an accusation by itself does not necessarily equate with guilt; as is the case with all accused suspects, Cedolia is legally entitled to a presumption of innocence until the allegations can be proven. A spokesperson for the diocese has said, “If it is determined that the allegation is unfounded, all that is possible will be done to restore Father Cedolia’s reputation and return him to ministry.”

This article is not legal advice. It is presented
for informational purposes only.