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  For the First Time, Victims Release Long-secret Church Letters

SNAP
April 15, 2011

http://www.snapnetwork.org/snap_press_releases/2011_press_releases/041511_for_the_first_time_victims_release_long_secret_church_letters.htm

They show church officials knew about predator 30+ years ago

Group also discloses two Oakland-area addresses where he lived

Arrested just last year, he faces extradition and several civil suits

Lawsuits to be amended soon & charge “international conspiracy”

SNAP wants local diocesan staffers to help US & Irish prosecutors

“Prelate should personally go to parishes & beg folks to step forward” group says

WHAT: Holding signs and childhood photos at a sidewalk news conference, clergy sex abuse victims and their supporters will disclose two never-disclosed church records proving that Catholic officials knew 30+ years ago that a recently-arrested pedophile priest was a child molester. They will also urge Bay Area Catholic officials to

-help law enforcement by “aggressively” seeking out other local victims of his,

-personally visiting key parishes begging witnesses and whistleblowers to speak up, and

-anyone who saw, suspected or suffered his crimes to get help and call police.

WHEN: Friday, April 15 at 1:15 p.m.

WHERE: Outside Oakland’s Catholic cathedral (“The Cathedral of Christ the Light”), 2121 Harrison Street, Oakland, CA

WHO: Four-six child sex abuse victims who belong to a support group called SNAP (including a Chicago woman who is the organization’s founder and long time president)

WHY: Last week, American attorneys uncovered two never-before-released letters about a pedophile priest who was arrested last year in the East Bay. The letters show that as far back as 1977, Irish Catholic officials knew of at least one credible child sex report against the cleric, long before they sent him to northern California where he repeatedly molested kids again.

The predator, Fr. Patrick J. McCabe, is in an Alameda County jail, pending his extradition to his home country.

http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news2010/07_08/2010_08_15_PressDemocrat_PDEditorial.htm

SNAP will provide copies of 1) a four page typewritten 1977 report from a priest to a school headmaster detailing what he calls a “well-founded” abuse complaint with “substantial evidence,” and 2) a two page note from the pedophile to one of his victims (which was promptly given to church authorities).

McCabe faces charges of sexually abusing six boys during his priesthood in Dublin in the 1970s and 1980s. In the last six months, McCabe has also been sued by four California men who say he molested them too in the 1980s.

SNAP is also disclosing two previously-undisclosed places in Alameda where McCabe lived. From April 2008 until his 2010 arrest, he lived at 866 1/2 Walnut Street. From February 2005 until March 2008, he lived in an apartment complex at 875 Island Drive. (The information comes from a private investigator.)

Last week, an Arcata man, Greg Horne, spoke publicly about the abuse he suffered at McCabe’s hands.

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20110330/ARTICLES/110339929/1350?p=1&tc=pg

SNAP wants Oakland Bishop Salvatore Cordileone to personally visit parishes near McCabe’s homes and beg anyone with information or suspicions about his crimes to come forward, call police and get help. Unlike the vast majority of pedophile priests, since McCabe faces pending criminal charges, action by Cordileone, SNAP says, could “really help law enforcement and keep a predator off the streets.”

Finally, the group is urging victims, witnesses and whistleblowers to call secular authorities, not authorities.

McCabe, now 74, was ordained in 1961 and worked for years in the Santa Rosa diocese.

CONTACT

David Clohessy 314-566-9790 SNAPclohessy@aol.com , Tim Lennon 415-312-5820, Barbara Dorris 314-503-0003 home, Joey Piscatelli, SNAP Bay Area Director 925-262 -3699

 
 

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