Grand jury has been getting busy

In other cities and counties, prosecutors have wrapped up grand jury investigations by issuing scathing reports that provided damaging information about how church higher-ups had protected abusive priests.

In three cases, however, prosecutors went beyond that, extracting admissions from top church officials.

In the most dramatic outcome, the archbishop of Cincinnati appeared in court last November to plead no contest on behalf of his diocese to five misdemeanor counts of failing to report abuse to authorities.

A year ago, to avoid an indictment on a felony charge of obstructing justice, the bishop of Phoenix admitted that he had concealed instances of sexual abuse.

And in December 2002, the diocese of New Hampshire formally admitted that prosecutors had enough evidence to likely convict the diocese on a misdemeanor charge of child endangerment.

….In a sign of the complexity of the current probe, Philadelphia prosecutors are now presenting evidence to a second set of impaneled jurors.

The first group of about 30 jurors met for 18 months in sessions supervised by Common Pleas Court Judge C. Darnell Jones 2d. About eight months ago, a second set of jurors was impaneled. This group, supervised by Common Pleas Court Judge Gwendolyn Bright, has legal authority to operate into the fall.

Investigating now for 25 months, Philadelphia’s grand jury is the longest-running of the dozen or so convened around the country since the scandal broke.

It now appears to be among the most aggressive.