HOLLIDAYSBURG, Pa. – One year ago this week, the Pennsylvania Office of the Attorney General released a grand jury report detailing an alleged, decades-long coverup of abuse by at least 50 Catholic priests and other religious leaders in the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese.

After a full year, the investigation remains open and some people are still unsatisfied with the diocese’ response.

The 147-page document released March 1, 2016, described “secret archives” kept by the diocese, a payout chart for different types of abuse, testimony from at least four priests who admitted to inappropriately touching children, and detailed biographies of the accused.

Former Bishops James Hogan and Joseph Adamec reportedly orchestrated the coverups. Hogan and Adamec headed the central Pennsylvanian diocese between 1966 to 2011. Hogan died in 2005 and Adamec retired in 2011 at age 75.

Joe Grace, communications director for Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro said their office is determined to leave the investigation open until every crime is uncovered.

“Through our grand jury report issued one year ago, we shined a light on clergy members’ sexual abuse of children,” Grace said. “The Office of Attorney General will do everything in its power to uncover and prosecute these crimes to the fullest extent of the law.”

The Catholic church is no stranger to scandals involving prolonged sexual abuse. In October, 1985 Louisiana priest Gilbert Gauthe pleaded guilty to charges related to sex abuse and child pornorgaphy in the first case to gain national attention. Since then, there have been a slew of abuse scandals  world-wide within the Catholic church. In 2002, the Boston Globe released their investigation on the Archdiocese of Boston’s extensive coverup, which included abuse cases dating back to the 1970s.

Over the past year, officials from the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese have responded by holding prayer services for victims and releasing the names of priests who have been credibly accused of child sexual abuse, but some say this is not enough.

George Foster, who was personally called a “hero” by former Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane for collecting information about pedophile priests for years, said the diocese should be doing more.

“No, my personal observation is, I don’t see anything that has substantially changed in the way the diocese monitors itself that makes me think they’re not going to repeat some of the mistakes from the past,” said Foster, who is working on a book about abuse in the diocese.

Tony DeGol, the diocese’s secretary for communications, said Mark Bartchak, the current Bishop of the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese, has been dedicated to developing a new approach to make the diocese a “leader in youth protection.”

“Bishop Bartchak is focused on the present and the future. He remains committed to the safety and protection of all children and youth in the diocese, and he pledges continued support to those who have been harmed,” DeGol said.

Judy Jones, the Midwest associate director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), agrees with Foster.

“I can’t see that anything has been (accomplished),” she said.

The diocese has issued prepared statements, but declined multiple interview requests from the Johnstown, Pennsylvania Tribune-Democrat.

Two weeks after the initial report, the attorney general’s office issued a separate finding about Brother Stephen Baker, who allegedly abused upwards of 100 children when he served at Bishop McCort High School, in Johnstown, Pennsylvania from 1992 through 2001. 

In that report, leaders of Baker’s Third Order Regular, Province of the Immaculate Conception, were accused of knowing the friar had allegations made against him before being assigned to the Johnstown, Pennsylvania school.

On Wednesday, about a half-dozen SNAP supporters congregated outside the Roman Catholic Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown’s headquarters, calling upon the local institution to provide more help and justice for victims of child sexual abuse.

The diocese declined to comment on the SNAP event, only referring to a statement it sent out on Tuesday in advance of the one-year anniversary. 

Former priest John Nesbella sued the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese in 2005, claiming he was molested when he attended Bishop Carroll High School in Edensburg, Pennsylvania. Nesbella was a priest in that same diocese at the time and when he came forward with his allegations he was forced out priesthood, he said. 

Thomas Venditti previously worked as a youth director at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Bellwood, a role in which he was told to send students to a confirmation retreat overseen by Baker.

None of that information was known to Venditti when he was at St. Joseph. Venditti said he was “just devastated” when the Baker report was released.

“I took those children to that monastery, and it was a dark and dingy experience,” Venditti said. “And he wanted to be alone with these children. I have no idea, to this day, whether any of them were abused.”

Recently, Nesbella and Venditti have united to form a local SNAP chapter.

“These guys came to SNAP wanting to help,” Jones said. “We feel that there’s a big need for a support group here. There are so many victims.”

Nesbella described the group’s goal as “cleansing the church of pedophilia.”

Last year’s report gave more people the courage to come forward with their own allegations. Shaun Dougherty told his story of being molested as a child, and has since been a vocal critic of the diocese and supporter of eliminating Pennsylvania’s statutes of limitations for child sexual predators. 

The report on Baker included indictments against Revs. Giles A. Schinelli, Robert J. D’Aversa and Anthony M. Criscitelli on charges of endangering the welfare of children and conspiracy.

The three defendants – in their roles as ministers provincial of the Third Order Regular, Province of the Immaculate Conception – are accused of giving Baker assignments that granted him access to children.

Oral arguments in their cases are scheduled to begin on April 27 in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania.

Todd Berkey and Dave Sutor write for the Johnstown, Pennsylvania Tribune-Democrat.