On August 14, 2018, Pennsylvania Attorney General released a report that showed that Cullen instructed his vicar general Alfred Schlert to act as an "enabler" when handling abuse allegations. A.G Shapiro said that Schlert and others earned promotions from Cullen for their work in handling the allegations. By the time the grand jury report was released, many records on sex abuse in the diocese were missing, with the grand jury stating that each of the six dioceses investigated "we believe that the real number — of children whose records were lost, or who were afraid ever to come forward — is in the thousands."