As the last prosecution witness in the Philadelphia priest sex-abuse trial took the stand Wednesday, the jury was told about an Archdiocese of Philadelphia document turned over to prosecutors that documented that the late Cardinal Anthony J. Bevilacqua and other Pennsylvania bishops formed an ad hoc committee to “better protect … from civil law discovery” secret-archive files of priests who had a history of problems, including of allegations of sexually abusing minors.
The Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia kept sensitive personnel files in “secret archives,” witnesses in the trial have said on several occasions.
