Priest-Abuse Advocacy Group under Legal Pressure in Church Suits

Chronicle of Philanthropy
March 14, 2012

http://philanthropy.com/blogs/philanthropytoday/priest-abuse-advocacy-group-under-legal-pressure-in-church-suits/45541

Lawyers for the Roman Catholic Church and accused priests in two Missouri sexual-abuse cases have gone to court to compel a national advocacy group for abuse victims to disclose years of e-mail correspondence, reports The New York Times.

In recent months, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, known as SNAP, has been subpoenaed five times in connection with cases involving the Kansas City and St. Louis dioceses. David Clohessy, the largely volunteer-run group's national director, was asked in a subpoena to turn over 23 years worth of documents.

Mr. Clohessy said he was deposed for six hours by church lawyers in January and called the questioning "a fishing, crabbing, shrimping, trash-collecting, draining the pond expedition" intended to "harass and discredit and bankrupt SNAP."

Attorneys for the dioceses and the priests said they could not comment on the cases under a judge's order. William Donohue, head of the New York-based Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, said seeking disclosure of the network's activities was justified because "SNAP is a menace to the Catholic Church."