Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown has released a grand jury report exposing the extensive child sexual abuse and cover-up within the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore. The investigation revealed over 600 cases of abuses committed by 156 people, including priests and teachers, over a period of 60 years. Some of the allegations date back to the 1940s. While survivors had long lobbied for the investigation, police and prosecutors were found to have treated the church with deference when they learned of the abuse, seemingly uninterested in learning what diocesan leadership knew and when. 

The report showed that Archbishop Francis Keough secretly resolved an accusation of abuse and used a highly placed newspaper man’s influence to prevent the story from being made public. The public version of the report has been redacted and is not expected to identify diocesan officials who attempted to cover up sexual abuse within their ranks. However, Brown has nevertheless called for the full accountability of abusers and those who enabled them. Almost all of the abusers are dead and the statute of limitations has passed for many of the cases documented in the report. Nevertheless, the report provides a critical public reckoning of the abuse and cover-up that has taken place in the Baltimore Catholic Church.