SNAP Holds Child Sex Abuse Protest Rally in Predominantly Catholic Poland, by JohnThomas Didymus, God Discussion, September 19, 2011

SNAP Holds Child Sex Abuse Protest Rally in Predominantly Catholic Poland

By JohnThomas Didymus
God Discussion
September 19, 2011

http://www.goddiscussion.com/79340/snap-holds-child-sex-abuse-protest-rally-in-predominantly-catholic-poland/

Polish Supreme Court building

An international organization promoting the interests of victims of sexual abuse by Catholic priests held a rally in Warsaw on Sunday. The organization, the Chicago-based Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), had earlier requested the International Criminal Court (ICC) to prosecute Pope Benedict XVI and other Vatican officials "for crimes against humanity of rape and other sexual violence committed around the world."

According to Barbara Blaine president of the organization,

It would be naive to think that there are no victims of sexual crimes by Polish priests. We suspect that there are children who have been violated and raped…We’re here to reach out to the victims, so they know about organisations like SNAP.

Pam Spees the lawyer for SNAP said,

Crimes against tens of thousands of victims, most of them children, are being covered up by officials at the highest level of the Vatican..

As might be expected, the protest, which involved SNAP representatives displaying banners and distributing pamphlets drew the ire of Catholic faithful in a predominantly(90%) Catholic country. A catholic, Alicja Krawczyk, expressed offence at the banner messages, some of which read, "Pedophiles are in the church." Krawczyk said, "It's a lie to accuse Polish priests. Go to the U.S. or England to protest."

Reports, however, say that there have been a number of child sex abuse cases among Catholic priests in Poland in recent times but none have so far generated public reaction as in the West because Catholic Poles seem unwilling to talk openly about it.

But Barbara Blaine says that the same attitude prevailed in the U.S. and Britain also for several years when it was a taboo for people to speak of pedophiles in the priesthood.

SNAP is on a tour of Europe to raise awareness on the problem of child sexual abuse in the priesthood. The organization had been in Brussels, Berlin, Paris and Vienna and is expected to visit Madrid.