“Our first job is to listen, to be empathetic,” said Deacon Bernie Nojadera, the executive director of the U.S. bishops’ Secretariat for the Protection of Children and Young People.

At least 1,000 children identified in the investigation were raped in Catholic places of worship, in schools, and in diocesan owned vehicles.

Pity and punish the powerful but take no delight in their fall.

The state’s attorney general said that his office’s two-year investigation identified 301 priests who abused children and more than 1,000 victims.