NEW YORK (AP) - A grand jury has accused the Roman Catholic Church of protecting priests from sex abuse claims and called for new laws making it a felony for church officials to fail to report such allegations.
The church's treatment of sex abuse claims amounted to "an orchestrated effort to protect abusing clergy members from investigation, arrest and prosecution," the Westchester County grand jury said in its report Tuesday.
Joseph Zwilling, a spokesman for the New York Archdiocese, called the report "unbalanced, unfair and inaccurate."
"The archdiocese will continue to do all that we can to protect children and young people in accord with our policy," he said.
In Boston, state Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly has convened a grand jury to weigh evidence in the clergy sex abuse scandal in the archdiocese there, a law enforcement source confirmed to The Associated Press.
The grand jury has been investigating for weeks whether Cardinal Bernard F. Law and other church leaders put priests in a position to sexually abuse minors, said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
By law, Reilly can't confirm a grand jury investigation. But he told the AP on Wednesday his office was using "every investigative tool available to us, including interviews and demand for documents and records."
"We have an obligation to look into this," Reilly said.
Donna M. Morrissey, Law's spokeswoman, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The 13-page report by the grand jury in Westchester County was the result of a two-month probe. The grand jury reviewed tens of thousands of pages of documents and heard from eight alleged victims.
It said the church's past treatment of abuse complaints amounted to "an orchestrated effort to protect abusing clergy members from investigation, arrest and prosecution."
The grand jury recommended making it a crime for any individual or organization to allow a known sex offender to have access to children, barring confidentiality clauses in settlements of pedophilia cases and removing the statute of limitations when the victim is a minor.
The panel also said it found a disturbing pattern of abusers plying their young victims with alcohol and cigarettes to gain their trust.
Zwilling said the church requested a hearing before a judge Friday to discuss the report.
New York Cardinal Edward Egan has already agreed to notify prosecutors of sex abuse allegations before conducting an internal review. The archdiocese has given prosecutors files on 35 years worth of sex abuse cases and has suspended several priests pending further investigation.
Nationwide, at least 250 priests have either been dismissed from their duties or resigned since the sex abuse scandal erupted in Boston early this year.
In other developments:
_In Madison, Neb., the Rev. Robert Allgaier admitted using a church computer to view sexually explicit pictures of children on the Internet. Allgaier pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge and the Archdiocese of Omaha has removed him from his priestly duties.
_ In Milwaukee, a priest was charged with sexually assaulting a teenager in 1988-89 when the priest worked at a high school. The Rev. Marvin Knighton, a consultant to the Milwaukee Archdiocese office of youth and child ministry, denied the allegations through his attorney.
_Venice, Fla., Bishop John Nevins denied covering up a child sexual abuse case by paying the victim "hush money" and helping the priest flee to Ireland. Nevins said he is guilty only of "not connecting the dots" that might have alerted him sooner that the priest had allegedly molested an altar boy.
_Priests from the Archdiocese of Cincinnati issued a statement asking forgiveness from abuse victims. The priests have gathered for a three-day meeting this week in Indianapolis to discuss the declining numbers of priests available for ministry.