REPORT Over 600 Children Sexually Abused By Catholic Archdiocese Clergy Anne Arundel to Baltimore County for 60 Years As Hierarchy Ignored Complaints

partial photo credit CBS news. REPORT Over 600 Children Sexually Abused By Pervert Priests in Catholic Archdiocese From Anne Arundel to Baltimore County for 60 Years As Hierarchy Ignored Complaints. More than 150 Catholic clergy members in the Archdiocese of Baltimore abused at least 600 children during a six-decade period, according to a report from the Maryland Attorney General after a years-long investigation, the latest sexual abuse scandal to hit a Catholic diocese.

In 2018, the Maryland Office of the Attorney General launched a Grand Jury investigation into the Archdiocese of Baltimore, examining criminal allegations of child sexual abuse by clergy, seminarians, deacons, and employees of the Archdiocese. The Office of the Attorney General also set out to investigate efforts by the leadership of the Catholic Church to hide sexual abuse. The Grand Jury of Baltimore City issued subpoenas to the Archdiocese, as well as to individual parishes, religious orders, and St. Mary’s Seminary. Hundreds of thousands of documents dating back to the 1940s were produced in response to the subpoenas, including treatment reports, personnel records, transfer reports, and policies and procedures.

The incontrovertible history uncovered by this investigation is one of pervasive and persistent abuse by priests and other Archdiocese personnel. It is also a history of repeated dismissal or cover up of that abuse by the Catholic Church hierarchy. While every victim’s story is unique, together they reveal themes and behaviors typical of adults who sexually abuse children, and of those who enable abuse by concealing it. What was consistent throughout was the absolute authority and power these abusive priests and church leadership held over victims, their families, and their communities.

Number 87 on the list of Baltimore Archdiocese pervert priests is Father Joseph Maskell who was, and is still linked to the unsolved murder of Sister Catherine Anne Cesnik who appears to have known of Maskell's sex abuse claims in the 1970's and was going to rat him out. On February 28, 2017 police opened the grave of Rev. A. Joseph Maskell after securing an order from the state’s attorney, according to Elise Armacost, director of public affairs for Baltimore County Police. Police took DNA samples from the corpse to check against a DNA profile developed from evidence taken in 1970 from the scene in Maryland where the badly decomposed body of Sister Catherine Anne Cesnik had been found by a father and son out hunting. The 26-year-old nun had been missing for nearly two months.

The Archdiocese of Baltimore does not encompass the entirety of the State; in addition to the City, it includes nine counties in central and western Maryland (Allegheny, Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Carroll, Frederick, Garrett, Harford, Howard, and Washington counties). These
boundaries have not changed since 1939, remaining static over the period of criminal activity described in this Report. see link https://www.marylandattorneygeneral.gov/news%20documents/OAG_redacted_Report_on_Child_Sexual_Abuse.pdf

photo credit CNN news. In the 1990s, sexual assault and abuse allegations began to surface against Father Joseph Maskell, who had served as a chaplain at Archbishop Keough High School in Baltimore and is linked to the unsolved murder of Sister Catherine Anne Cesnik. In 1992, two female former students came forward to say Maskell abused them. By 1994, they and several other students had filed a lawsuit alleging physical and sexual abuse by Maskell through the 1960s and 1970s, according to Armacost.

Sean Caine, spokesman for the Archdiocese of Baltimore, said the archdiocese removed Maskell from his post as soon as they learned of the allegations in 1992, in order to conduct their own investigation. He was permanently removed from the ministry in 1994. While police were never able to bring charges against the priest, Caine said that 16 people who said Maskell abused them have since received money from the archdiocese as part of financial agreements.

According to Armacost, in 1994 one of the students who claimed abuse by Maskell when she was in high school said that he took her to a remote dumping area and showed her Sister Catherine Anne Cesnik ’s decaying body as a warning of what would happen if she told anyone about him. Joanne Suder, an attorney for many of Maskell’s sexual abuse victims, said, “If law enforcement, in general, had done their job back in 1970, they’d have brought Maskell in then and this wouldn’t have all been necessary in 2017.

 

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