Abusers preyed upon the children most devoted to the church - altar servers and choir members, those who participated in church youth organizations and the Scout troops, and especially those who worked in the rectories answering telephones in the evening and on the weekends, the report said.
The abusers groomed the victims with presents and special attention while telling their victims the abuse was "God’s will" and that no one would doubt the word of a priest, the report said.
The more than 450-page report identified 156 priests, seminarians, Catholic teachers and deacons in the Archdiocese who sexual abused and physically tortured more than 600 victims, the report said.
While the report is redacted, it nevertheless gives extensive details about the cover up by the Catholic church, the media and the courts, the report said.
"Until recent decades, church officials who received complaints of abuse behaved no better. Time and again, bishops and other leaders in the church displayed empathy for the abusers that far outweighed any compassion shown to the children who were abused," the report said. "These leaders repeatedly accepted the word of abusers over that of victims and their families. They conflated pedophilia with alcoholism and other substance use disorders, and they exhibited a misplaced reliance on 'treatment.'"
Catholic leadership conducted sham investigations done by clergy who were neither trained as investigators nor independent of the church, the report said.
The Attorney General’s Office said while victims, advocacy groups and investigative journalists documented the abuse, it wanted to publicize for the first time its enormous scope and scale as well as the concealment perpetrated by the Archdiocese of Baltimore.
"While it may be too late for the victims to see criminal justice served, we hope that exposing the Archdiocese’s transgressions to the fullest extent possible will bring some measure of accountability," the report added.
The report recommends that the Maryland legislature amend the statute of limitations for civil actions involving child sex abuse, according to the report.
The Maryland Senate and House are now weighing that issue.