Pittsburgh Diocese Received 50 New Abuse Claims After Grand Jury Report

Over the past week, the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh says it has fielded 50 new allegations of abuse following a Pennsylvania grand-jury report that last week named 300 priests and involved at least 1,000 sexual-abuse victims. Diocese spokesman Rev. Nicholas S. Vaskov said the claims came from a hotline created by the church and “from people who had not previously contacted us.” Each allegation will be turned over to prosecutors, said Vaskov. “All of the allegations are from prior to 1990 and go back as far as the 1940s,” he added. “We are taking all of them seriously and following our regular process for responding to them.” State-wide, a hotline set up by Attorney General Josh Shapiro has reportedly received hundreds more since the report came out.