SNAP on Milwaukee Archdiocese Paying-off Priests

By Fred Bodimer
KMOX
June 1, 2012

http://stlouis.cbslocal.com/2012/06/01/snap-on-milwaukee-archdiocese-paying-off-priests/


A local clergy abuse survivor is sounding off on published reports that St. Louis native — Cardinal Timothy Dolan — paid suspected pedophile priests $20,000 to leave the ministry while serving as Archbishop of Milwaukee.

“In what other line of work does a man molest children, then get paid a bonus to leave?” says David Clohessy.

He’s the head of the St. Louis based Survivors Network of Those Abused By Priests or SNAP.

“If Dolan wants to protect kids, he knows that the way to do that is to help police and prosecutors lock-up child molesting clerics, not simply strip them of their collars and send them on their way,” says Clohessy.

Spokespersons with the Milwaukee Archdiocese say the payments were, in part, to more quickly move those men out of the priesthood and transition to lay life without completely losing access to healthcare.