MA- O'Malley calls SNAP “angry & hurt” - SNAP responds

By Phil Saviano
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
April 2, 2014

http://www.snapnetwork.org/ma_o_malley_calls_snap_angry_hurt_snap_responds

In a derisive put-down, Boston's top Catholic official is criticizing the motives of thousands of members of our self-help group. 

In an interview published late yesterday by the Washington Post, Cardinal Sean O'Malley dismissed our well-founded skepticism about the latest Catholic abuse panel by claiming that our organization is “very hurt and very angry.”

For a quarter century, we've helped expose the complicity of hundreds of Catholic officials in thousands of heinous child sex crimes. So it's tempting and convenient for most of them to portray us as “angry.” The truth is, however, that most of us are passionate . . . about the safety of children. That's what drives us. And we're deeply – and justifiably – disappointed that after nearly 30 years of widely-reported and extensively-documented callous cover ups by seemingly countless Catholic clerics, Pope Francis is setting up yet-another church panel to study abuse.

It's been said that the best defense is a good offense. So we're not surprised that O'Malley tries to discredit and dismiss us. In so doing, he joins a long list of his church colleagues who know they can't defend the indefensible so instead they attack the messengers.