The New Jersey Supreme Court will decide if a planned grand jury investigation into alleged sexual abuse in the Catholic Church can go forward. It’s an investigation advocates say is critical if sexual abuse survivors are to obtain justice.

The New Jersey Office of the Attorney General announced the grand jury probe in 2018, after allegations against Cardinal Theodore McCarrick and other members of the clergy. Kane In Your Corner recently investigated the McCarrick case as part of News 12’s docuseries “Crime Files.”

However, newly unsealed court records show that the Diocese of Camden has been blocking the probe. The Diocese sued, arguing that the state had no authority to have a grand jury investigate the church. A judge agreed, and now the state’s highest court will have the final word.

“We want to see the grand jury be convened,” says attorney Greg Gianforcaro, who represents numerous sex assault survivors. He predicts the findings would be “groundbreaking.”

Gianforcaro also criticized the Diocese of Camden’s tactics in trying to block the probe. “The Catholic Church in New Jersey has promised to be open and transparent,” he says. “Don't claim that you're being open and transparent when you are using rules and statutes as a means of withholding truths”.

In a written statement, First Assistant Attorney General Lyndsay Ruotolo hailed the Supreme Court’s decision to hear the case and to unseal all related documents. “Our commitment to the work of the Clergy Abuse Task Force has never wavered,” Ruotolo says. “Now that this case has been made public for the first time… victims and survivors will have an opportunity to make their voices heard.”

“The issue before the Court is purely a legal one," says Matthew Walsh, a spokesperson for the Diocese of Camden.

“The Diocese of Camden recognizes the serious, life-long harms suffered by the victims of abuse by clergy members. For more than 20 years, the Diocese has complied with its obligations to report all allegations of abuse”. Supreme Court arguments are set to begin on April 28.