Members will not bear arms, salute a national flag or participate in secular politics. The Jehovah’s Witnesses, an international Christian denomination founded in the Pittsburgh area more than a century ago and headquartered in New York state, claims 8.7 million members worldwide, including 1.2 million in the United States.
More recently, a similar report was issued in Maryland. In a case with some parallels, a state grand jury investigation into child sexual abuse by Catholic priests culminated in a lengthy 2018 report that concluded hundreds of priests had abused children in Pennsylvania over seven decades and church officials had covered it up. Dozens of witnesses then testified before the secret grand jury in Harrisburg or provided information to the attorney general’s office. The grand jury probe of Jehovah’s Witnesses began with a referral from a county prosecutor who felt the state should take a broader look at the issue. One of the nine earlier defendants killed himself before he was arrested, Henry said. The grand jury presentments - statements outlining the charges - give no indication that any elder ever contacted police to report abuse. In three other cases, alleged victims testified that they told elders of their abuse.
In one case, the grand jury obtained records from Sheffer’s congregation in Zelienople, documenting an internal investigation into his conduct. The church has also said that the second-witness rule applies only to internal church discipline and that elders comply with mandated-reporting laws.
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Anyone who has been victimized has the full support of the congregation to report the matter to the authorities.”
“We also are quick to support and offer pastoral care to those affected, while working to ensure that unrepentant perpetrators are removed from the congregation.
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The church has long worked to “educate and warn parents through our publications, meetings, and website, about how to protect their children in a variety of circumstances,” he said. It was not immediately clear if any of them had lawyers representing them.Ĭhurch spokesman Jarrod Lopes said in a statement that while the church cannot comment on specific grand jury actions, “the news of someone being sexually abused, whether a child or an adult, sickens us.” Four were taken in custody, while Balosa was being sought.
The five charged were David Balosa, 62, of Philadelphia Errol William Hall, 50, of Delaware County Shaun Sheffer, 45, of Butler County Terry Booth, 57, of Panama City, FL and Luis Ayala-Velasquez, 55, of Berks County. Others involved less serious charges of inappropriate touching. One person said that she was raped 50 or more times between the ages of 7 and 12 by a church member who was 18 when the assaults began. In the charges announced Friday, Henry said that the men had groomed or gained access to the children through the church, sometimes when the child’s family took the person into their home. He also hopes organizational leaders are called to account, “because it’s not just a Pennsylvania problem, it’s a national problem.” “I hope elders are arrested who knew about child abuse and covered it up and then it happened again,” said Haugh, who testified to the grand jury about the church’s structure and about his own daughter’s abuse within a Jehovah’s Witnesses congregation.
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