Confession: Leaders of the Catholic Church in New Jersey covered up sexual abuse by hundreds of priests for at least 70 years, according to a grand jury report released yesterday.

The 900-page report says it has identified at least 1,000 victims and listed more than 300 priests, some of whose names were redacted because the accusations are being fought in court. It may be the most comprehensive report yet on sexual abuse and coverup among the Catholic clergy.

“Despite some institutional reform, individual leaders of the church have largely escaped public accountability,” the grand jury wrote. “Priests were raping little boys and girls, and the men of God who were responsible for them not only did nothing; they hid it all. For decades.”

Among those named is CardinalDonald Wuerl in Washington, the former Bishop of Pittsburgh who is now a close adviser to Pope Francis. Just a week ago, Wuerl proposed that the national conference of US Catholic bishops create a panel to investigate rumors and reports of misconduct by one of its member bishops.

The findings of the report are unlikely to lead to many criminal charges, if any. The statute of limitations has run out.

Genoa Bridge:Italian rescuers searched through the night for survivors of a highway bridge collapse yesterday in Genoa. At least 37 people were confirmed dead and 15 badly hurt. Twelve people were reported missing. More than 30 cars and three heavy vehicles were on the bridge when it fell.

The bridge soared high over apartment buildings, roads, a river, railroad tracks, and warehouses as part of the spaghetti tangle of elevated highways in the city. It fell during a heavy storm, but it’s too early to know whether the storm was the cause.

A local structural engineer warned back in 2016 that the bridge had major engineering faults and should be replaced. A Genoa woman told the BBC, “The state of the bridge always concerned us. Nobody has ever crossed that bridge with a light heart. Everybody has always done it praying that the bridge wouldn’t fall down. Today that happened.”

Primary Rundown:Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty was badly beaten in his bid for the Republican nomination for governor, confirming President Trump’s grip on the party. Pawlenty had called Trump “unsound, uninformed, unhinged and unfit to be president.” — Kansas Gov. Jeff Colyer conceded in the race for the Republican nomination for governor, handing a narrow victory to Secretary of State Kris Kobach, a big Trump supporter who headed the President’s failed voter fraud commission. — Christine Hallquist, a Democrat and former Vermont utility executive, became the first transgender candidate nominated by a major party to run for a governorship. — Melissa Howard, a Republican candidate for the Florida House, withdrew after the revelation that she had faked a college diploma. “I made a terrible error in judgement,” she said in a text message to the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. They already knew that.

The Defense Rests:The defense rested yesterday in the tax evasion and financial fraud trial of former Trump campaign chairman Pau Manafort. They didn’t call any witnesses. Barring a miracle, Manafort is cooked unless Trump pardons him.

Omarosa Obsession:The Trump campaign organization has filed an arbitration case with fired White House aide Omarosa for violating the nondisclosure agreement she signed. She’s been talking while selling her book “Unhinged” about her time with Trump in the White House.

Trump appears to be obsessed with Omarosa, tweeting about her eight times in two days. In the last one he called her a dog. “When you give a crazed, crying lowlife a break, and give her a job at the White House, I guess it just didn’t work out. Good work by General Kelly for quickly firing that dog!”

Admiration is Trump’s lifeblood and he becomes, to paraphrase Omarosa, unhinged when he doesn’t get it. He tweeted, “Look at her MANY recent quotes saying…. ….such wonderful and powerful things about me – a true Champion of Civil Rights – until she got fired. Omarosa had Zero credibility with the Media (they didn’t want interviews) when she worked in the White House. Now that she says bad about me, they will talk to her. Fake News!”

Omarosa has accused Trump of being an outright racist. She said on MSNBCthat she doesn’t think she violated her nondisclosure, “But I will leave it to the lawyers to sort it out. It is interesting that he is trying to silence me. And what is he trying to hide or (is) afraid of? If he had not said anything that is derogatory or demeaning to African-Americans and women, why would he go to the extent to shut me down?”

Peeing in Paris:The romantic city of Paris is fighting its problem with men peeing in public by experimenting with small public urinals about the size of a postal box. It’s bright red and has a port to pee into … no screen, no door, just right out there next to Notre Dame Cathedral. It’s called the “Uritrottoir” and it has a little flower garden on top to make the whole thing tasteful. Peonies would be good.

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