Apr. 7—CUMBERLAND — Of four Catholic parishes in the state that each had at least six officials who allegedly abused children, two of the congregations were in Cumberland, according to a report from the Maryland Attorney General's Office.

The Attorney General's Office started an investigation of abuse allegations in 2018.

On Wednesday, the office released a 456-page report, which includes redactions by order of the Circuit Court for Baltimore City, that indicates at least 600 children were abused over the past 80 years.

The report is based on material obtained from the Attorney General's Office and provided by the Archdiocese of Baltimore in response to Grand Jury subpoenas, and reporting letters from the Archdiocese, the report states and added that accusations described in the report "do not constitute findings of guilt."

"Certain parishes had multiple abusers," the report states.

It alleges abuse by 22 former local clergy, including Monsignor Thomas Bevan, Father Laurence Brett, Father George Hopkins, Father Robert Hopkins, Father Regis Larkin, Father John Mountain, and Father John Wielebski, who were at St. Patrick.

The report also includes Bevan, Father Marion Helowicz, Robert Hopkins, Father Ronald Michaud, Monsignor Richard E. Smith and Father Michael Spillane, who were at St. Mary in Cumberland.

The patterns

According to the report, abusers frequently continued their behavior even after victims came forward, or concerns were raised.

"Time and again, members of the church's hierarchy resolutely refused to acknowledge allegations of child sexual abuse for as long as possible," it states. "When denial became impossible, church leadership would remove abusers from the parish or school, sometimes with promises that they would have no further contact with children."

Wielebski, who also served in Glyndon, Pikesville, Baltimore, and Laurel, "was another priest who sexually abused children who came to him for counseling," the report states. "Chillingly, one of his victims was sent to Wielebski because of earlier sexual abuse."

Robert Hopkins, who also served in Dundalk and Baltimore, preyed upon an altar boy who volunteered to open the rectory in the mornings and assist with the mass, the report states.

"Hopkins was so trusted by the family that the victim's parents let their son sleep overnight at the rectory," the report states. "Hopkins raped him for five years."

Brett, who also served in Baltimore, Pasadena and other states including Connecticut, New Mexico and Pennsylvania, "admitted in 1964 to the Bridgeport Diocese that he sexually abused and assaulted a boy when he was in Connecticut," the report states. "He was sent to 'treatment' in New Mexico where he continued to abuse children and then came to the Archdiocese of Baltimore. He was placed at Calvert Hall, a boys' school. He abused over 20 boys in Maryland after 1964."

Helowicz also served at parishes in Catonsville, Severna Park and Baltimore, the report states.

In late March 1988, a victim called the Baltimore County Police Department and reported being sexually abused by Helowicz at St. Stephen's Church from 1981 to 1984 when the victim was 16 years old.

"The police alerted the Archdiocese the next day, and notes of conversations among police officers ... indicate that Helowicz admitted the abuse," the report states. "The notes express alarm about the prospect of Helowicz being interviewed by police, and Archdiocesan officials' confidence in Helowicz's assurances that he had only one victim."

Because Helowicz said there was only one victim, "church leaders allowed him to return to the parish and resume his ministry," the report states.

"But less than a week later, Helowicz admitted to abusing a second boy," it states. "Only then were his faculties as a priest suspended and he was removed from his parish."

Helowicz was indicted in October 1988 for a sexual offense against the first victim and pleaded guilty in December 1988.

"But the Archdiocese did not report Helowicz's abuse of the second victim to any authorities until 2002," the report states.

The transfers

According to the report, the Archdiocese transferred known abusers to other positions of equal authority and access to children.

"They focused not on protecting victims or stopping the abuse, but rather on ensuring at all costs that the abuse be kept hidden," it states. "The costs and consequences of avoiding scandal were borne by the victimized children."

An internal document in church records indicates that in 1988 a man reported "that Father (Lowell) Barnes grabbed his genitals when they were wrestling at St. Clare's in Baltimore" when the victim was ages 13-17 in the mid 1970s, the report states.

Barnes was assigned to St Mary in Cumberland in 1988.

"In February 2005, a man reported that he was sexually abused by Bevan as a 10-year-old in 1972 when he was a student at St. John the Evangelist Elementary School and a St. John altar boy," the report states.

Bevan was reportedly in Cumberland in the early 1990s, and from 1997-2009.

"By April 1985, the Archdiocese was aware that at least two children had reported that they were sexually abused by (Father William) Simms," the report states.

Simms was assigned to Sacred Heart Hospital in 1986.

Find help

"As the case descriptions in this report make clear, from the 1940s through 2002, over a hundred priests and other Archdiocese personnel engaged in horrific and repeated abuse of the most vulnerable children in their communities while Archdiocese leadership looked the other way," the report states.

The Victims of Child Sexual Abuse Reporting Hotline can be reached by calling 410-576-6312.

Teresa McMinn is a reporter for the Cumberland Times-News. She can be reached at 304-639-2371 or tmcminn@times-news.com.