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  Clergy Sex Abuse Victims Blast Archdiocese

SNAP
May 2, 2009

http://www.snapnetwork.org/snap_statements/2009_statements/050109_clergy_sex_abuse_victims_blast_archdiocese.htm

Catholic officials kept priest's arrest secret for months

Accused predator was nabbed as he tried to flee the US


A support group for clergy sex abuse victims is harshly criticizing New York Catholic officials for keeping silent for months about criminal sexual misconduct charges against a priest who tried to flee the US.

On Wednesday, Westchester County prosecutors announced that Fr. Richard Ordonez faces charges that he tried to sexually assault a woman he was counseling in 2004 at St. Vito's Parish in Mamaroneck. On December 8, Ordonez was arrested at Kennedy International Airport while he was trying to return to Ecuador.

"Once again, sexual misconduct allegations against a New York priest are kept quiet by the church hierarchy," said Barbara Blaine of Chicago, national president member of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. "Four months after he's arrested, we learn of the accused priest only because law enforcement caught him before he fled the US."

"This case shows that Catholic officials continue to be obsessed with keeping clergy sex crimes secret," she said.

In 2002, under intense pressure because of the church's clergy sex abuse and cover up crisis, America's bishops adopted a 'charter' that pledges 'openness and transparency' in cases of misconduct by predatory priests. SNAP says those pledges are rarely honored.

"Four months of secrecy gives a criminal a long time to intimidate victims, threaten witnesses, destroy evidence, and fabricate alibis," said David Clohessy, SNAP's national director. "By violating its promises of '’openness,’ the Archdiocese has hurt victims, Catholics, police and prosecutors, all of whom need and deserve to know when priests face criminal sex charges."

"We hope that anyone who saw, suspected or suffered misdeeds by this priest will come forward, get help, call police and protect others," he said.

(SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, is the nation’s oldest and largest support group for clergy abuse victims. We’ve been around for 20 years and have more than 9,000 members across the country. Despite the word “priest” in our title, we have members who were molested by religious figures of all denominations, including nuns, rabbis, bishops, and Protestant ministers. Our website is SNAPnetwork.org)

Contact David Clohessy (314-566-9790 cell, 314-645-5915 home), Barbara Blaine (312-399-4747), Barbara Dorris (314-862-7688 home)

 
 

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