The Philadelphia archdiocese has suspended three priests named as child molestation suspects in a scathing grand jury report issued last week and has pledged to reopen complaints made against 34 others still on the job.
Joseph Gallagher, Stephen Perzan and Joseph DiGregorio have been removed from ministry while their cases are reviewed.
A city grand jury last week charged five other people - four current or former priests and a former Catholic school teacher - with raping boys in the late 1990s or endangering children by covering up the crimes. An earlier grand jury report, in 2005, blasted the church for ignoring or dismissing sexual-abuse complaints made against 63 priests in the archdiocese over many decades.
While the archdiocese under Cardinal Justin Rigali after the first report formed a panel to handle abuse complaints, the second grand jury found it mostly worked to protect the church, not the victims. Rigali addressed that criticism Wednesday by announcing that he would retain former city child-abuse prosecutor Gina Maisto Smith to reopen complaints made against the active-duty priests.
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