Roman Catholic priests in Pennsylvania sexually abused thousands of children over a 70-year period and silenced victims through “the weaponization of faith” and a systematic cover-up campaign by their bishops, the state attorney general said on Tuesday.

An 884-page report made public by Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro after a two-year investigation contained graphic examples of children being groomed and sexually abused by clergymen. It was largely based on documents from secret archives kept by the dioceses, including handwritten confessions by priests, he said.

“It was child sexual abuse, including rape, committed by grown men – priests – against children,” Shapiro told a press conference.

Representatives of the six Pennsylvania dioceses included in the report could not be reached for comment.

The attorney general said it was the most comprehensive report on Catholic clergy sex abuse in American history, nearly two decades after an expose of widespread abuse and cover-up in Boston that rocked the Roman Catholic Church.

Several of the dioceses issued statements apologising to victims and saying they were taking steps to ensure any criminal behaviour was stopped. “The grand jury has challenged us as a Catholic diocese to put victims first and to continue to improve ways to protect children and youth,” Bishop Lawrence Persico of the Erie Diocese said in a statement.

As accusers wept behind him, Shapiro described alleged abuse by priests in six of the state’s eight dioceses, including a group of Pittsburgh clergymen accused of ordering an altar boy to strip naked and pose as Christ on the cross while they photographed him.

“The pattern was abuse, deny and cover up,” Shapiro said, adding that church officials sought to keep abuse allegations quiet long enough so they could no longer be prosecuted under Pennsylvania’s statute of limitations.

“Priests were raping little boys and girls,” Shapiro said. “They hid it all for decades.”

The report cited 301 priests, some of whom have died. Only two of the priests are still subject to prosecution.

A few of the clergymen accused in the report succeeded in having their names redacted, and Shapiro said he would argue at a Sept. 26 court hearing for making all the names public.

He said the grand jury identified about a thousand victims, but believed there may be many more.

Shapiro said that one priest had molested five sisters in one family, he said. The diocese settled with the family after requiring a confidentiality agreement, he said.

The attorney general said that Catholic bishops covered up child sexual abuse by priests and reassigned them repeatedly to different parishes. “They allowed priests to remain active for as long as 40 years,” he said.

Describing the “weaponisation of faith” to silence victims, Shapiro cited several examples including one priest who allegedly told children “how Mary had to lick Jesus clean after he was born” to groom them for oral sex.

“Children were taught that this abuse was not only normal but that it was holy,” Shapiro said.

Since the Boston abuse scandal erupted in the 1990s, accusations involving American clerics have sporadically surfaced.

Theodore McCarrick, a former archbishop of Washington, resigned as a cardinal last month after accusations resurfaced that he abused a 16-year-old boy decades ago.

In recent months, Pope Francis accepted a number of resignations from Chilean bishops in a sex abuse scandal that has rocked that country.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan vowed on Thursday to choke off businesses linked to the U.S.-based cleric he blames for an attempted coup, describing his schools, firms and charities as “nests of terrorism” and promising no mercy in rooting them out.

Business is the arena in which the network of Fethullah Gulen is still the strongest, Erdogan said in a speech from his palace broadcast live. Those who “financed the shooters” would be treated like the coup plotters themselves, he said.

Erdogan accuses Gulen of harnessing an extensive network of schools, charities and businesses, built up in Turkey and abroad over decades, to infiltrate state institutions and build a “parallel structure” that aimed to take over the country.

An Istanbul court on Thursday issued an arrest warrant for the cleric for “giving the instructions” for the coup attempt, the latest of several warrants issued against him in recent years on charges including running a criminal network.

The 75-year-old cleric denies the allegations.

More than 60,000 people in the military, judiciary, civil service and education have been detained, suspended or placed under investigation for alleged links to his “Hizmet” (Service) movement since the July 15 coup, prompting fears among Western allies and rights groups of a witch-hunt.

“They have nothing to do with a religious community, they are a fully-fledged terrorist organisation … This cancer is different, this virus has spread everywhere,” Erdogan told heads of chambers of commerce and bourses attending his speech.

“The business world is where they are the strongest. We will cut off all business links, all revenues of Gulen-linked business. We are not going to show anyone any mercy,” he said, describing the detentions so far as just the tip of the iceberg.

BUSINESS CRACKDOWN

Gulen, who has lived in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania since 1999, has denied plotting against the state and has condemned the coup attempt, in which rogue soldiers commandeered warplanes, helicopters and tanks, bombing parliament and seizing bridges in a bid to seize power.

More than 230 people were killed, excluding soldiers who were involved in the coup attempt. Many of the dead were civilians.

Before the failed coup, the Turkish authorities had already seized Islamic lender Bank Asya, taken over or closed several media companies and detained businessmen on allegations of funding the cleric’s movement.

Although the bulk of the purges in the wake of the putsch have been in the security forces, judiciary and public sector, private firms have also been affected.

The head of research at a brokerage had his licence revoked over a report to investors analysing the coup plot, while Turkish Airlines, arguably the country’s most recognised brand, has fired 211 staff over alleged Hizmet links.

The chairman and several executives from Boydak Holding, a prominent family-run conglomerate with interests from furniture to energy, have also been detained, as has the chief of Turkey’s biggest petrochemicals firm Petkim.

“KEEPING A COOL HEAD”

The coup fallout risks affecting some multinational firms operating in Turkey, including delaying investment decisions.

German energy group EWE, which employs around 700 people in Turkey, said around a dozen managers had left its subsidiary in recent days. A spokesman declined to give a reason but said the company, while not questioning its engagement with Turkey, was monitoring the political and economic situation very carefully.

Siemens Chief Executive Joe Kaeser told reporters on Thursday he had summoned the head of the group’s Turkish operations to a supervisory board meeting a day earlier to get a first-hand account of events inside the country.

The German industrial group employs 3,000 people in Turkey.

“It’s a question of keeping a cool head and keeping an eye on how things develop, because things are developing which are not really desirable in a modern democracy,” he told a conference call to discuss the company’s earnings.

Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said Turkey would introduce a package of reforms to encourage investment including removing some taxes, as the government looks to shore up confidence. But investors remain cautious.

“Investment plans are being put on ice. Given the current emergency legislation new investment is not advisable,” said Anton Boerner, head of Germany’s BGA trade association, adding concern about Turkey’s credit ratings had also made investment more expensive.

Germany is the biggest foreign investor in Turkey with investments totalling more than 12 billion euros ($13.3 billion) since 1980, according to the German foreign ministry.

STRAINS IN RELATIONS

The coup and its aftermath have strained Turkey’s relations with the United States, which has said it will not extradite Gulen unless Turkey provides evidence of his wrongdoing, and Europe, some of whose politicians have raised concern that Erdogan is using events to further tighten his grip on power.

Turkey’s EU Affairs Minister criticised comments by Austrian Chancellor Christian Kern suggesting talks on Turkey joining the European Union should be broken off, saying the EU’s founding values remain a reference for Ankara.

Kern said on Wednesday he would start a discussion among European heads of government to quit talks on Turkish accession because of its democratic and economic deficits.

“It’s disturbing that his statements are similar to those of the far right… Criticism is surely a democratic right but there has to be a difference between criticising Turkey and being against Turkey,” EU minister Omer Celik told reporters.

A senior EU official involved in accession talks with Turkey said Kern’s comments were “too early” and part of “the domestic debate” in Austria, where the far-right Freedom Party attracts around a third of votes in opinion polls. But he did not entirely dismiss them.

“The EU should not, obviously, pursue the road of ending the accession talks with Turkey, but we will have to if Turkey keeps sliding into semi-authoritarianism,” the official said.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said in remarks published on Thursday that it would be counterproductive to freeze accession talks, but said Turkey is currently unfit to become an EU member.

The purges of Gulen’s suspected followers this week extended to the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (Tubitak) and have also included private and military hospitals, which are now under the supervision of the health ministry.

The number of staff purged at Turkey’s Football Federation rose to more than 110 on Thursday, while four actors and two directors at municipal theatres in Istanbul were also suspended, according to broadcaster NTV.