BOSTON, Massachusetts (AFP) - A "culture of secrecy" in the Boston Catholic Church was responsible for six decades of sexual abuse by clergy that claimed hundreds of child victims, Massachusetts Attorney General Tom Reilly said.
"The mistreatment of children was so massive and so prolonged that it borders on the unbelievable," Reilly said as he released the report on a 16-month investigation into sexually abusive priests in the Roman Catholic Boston archdiocese.
Reilly said the archdiocese's own records documented that 789 victims had come forward since 1940 with allegations of abuse against 237 priests.
"I have absolutely no doubt that real the number is far greater," he said, slamming the "inexcusable failure" of Church leaders to put a stop to the mistreatment.
"They knew full well that children were being sexually abused," Reilly said.
The report details a "culture of secrecy" within the archdiocese that was more concerned with protecting abusive priests and the reputation of the Church from scandal, than with protecting the children at risk.
The attorney general also voiced his intense disappointment that the statute of limitations and weak child protection laws had prevented the filing of criminal charges against senior members of the archdiocese for negligence.
"We worked hard, we tried ... the bottom line is the laws in existence at the time were not enough," he said.
Nevertheless, the report made it clear that the ultimate responsibility lay with leaders like Cardinal Bernard Law and his officers who had allowed sexually abusive priests to be transferred from parish to parish in order to avoid scandal.
Law resigned as head of the archdiocese in December.
"Any claim by the Cardinal or the archdiocese's senior managers that they did not know about the abuses suffered by, or the continuing threat to, children in the archdiocese is simply not credible," the report said.
Reilly also condemned the legal obstacles the Church sought to put in the way of his office's investigation that began in January, 2002.
"The archdiocese was clearly within its legal rights to do what it did ... but it was not worthy," he said.
The attorney general went on to warn that, while no evidence had been uncovered of any ongoing or recent child abuse, it was too early to conclude that the abuse had stopped or would nor re-occur.
"The institutional acceptance of abuse has been part of the culture of management of the archdiocese of Boston for many years. And this has gone on far too long to believe that it has changed," he said.
On Tuesday, two dozen protestors had gathered outside the attorney general's downtown office to express outrage that no ranking church officials would be indicted.
"We demand; we are not asking, that Attorney General Reilly find ways to indict," said Paul Baier, president of Survivors First, an advocacy group for victims of clergy sex abuse.
The protestors delivered letters to Reilly and Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, denouncing what they said was a "political" decision and the state's "deference" to the church.
With some two million Catholics, Boston is one of the most important archdiocese in the United States.
Law's replacement, Bishop Sean Patrick O'Malley, who was appointed by the pope on July 1, has pledged to bring reconciliation and healing to the local Catholic community.
But Reilly said promises of policy changes were not enough.
"The archdiocese has yet to demonstrate a commitment to the protection of children, proportionate to the harm it has caused," he said, calling on the Church to adopt a new spirit of openness when it comes to issues related to the protection of children.