Pope Should Demote or at Least Suspend His Prosecutorial Pick

SNAP
November 24, 2014

http://www.snapnetwork.org/rome_pope_demote_pick_for_prosecutor

Yesterday, we called on Pope Francis to rescind his promotion of the new church child sex abuse “prosecutor.” We hope the pontiff will do this.

But if not, we hope Francis or the head of the Jesuit order will at least suspend Fr. Robert Geisinger and hire independent experts to investigate how many other alleged child sex crimes Geisinger may have hidden or may still be hiding. We strongly suspect that there are many more “skeletons” in Geisinger’s closet.

Catholic officials claim they want to “restore trust” in their leadership. Yet time and time again, they continue to promote clerics who endanger kids, keep secrets and protect predators.

Some say Geisinger "failed" to report credible abuse allegations to police. This is not accurate.

Geisinger REFUSED to report credible abuse allegations. And he did so for years. And he refuses, even now, to address these disturbing disclosures, while Francis helps him climb the clerical career ladder.

Geisinger deliberately, repeatedly and selfishly chose to put his needs, career and comfort ahead of the safety of children.

The word “failure” implies a good faith effort that went awry, like a batter swinging at but missing a pitch or a joke that doesn’t elicit laughs. What Geisinger did is much more sinister than “failure.” He intentionally hid credible reports of sexual violence against kids.

He's a smart, well-educated Jesuit. He knew that the accusations against his colleague and underling were criminal in nature. But he refused to report the alleged crimes. And the crimes continued and other kids were hurt.

He should be demoted, not promoted. Francis should be ashamed for having picked him. And Francis should discipline Geisinger – harshly, publicly and promptly.

(SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, is the world’s oldest and largest support group for clergy abuse victims. We’ve been around for 25 years and have more than 18,000 members. Despite the word “priest” in our title, we have members who were molested by religious figures of all denominations, including nuns, rabbis, bishops, and Protestant ministers. Our website is SNAPnetwork.org)

Contact - David Clohessy (314-566-9790 cell, SNAPclohessy@aol.com), Barbara Dorris (314-503-0003 cell, SNAPdorris@gmail.com), Barbara Blaine (312-399-4747, SNAPblaine@gmail.com), Peter Isely (414-429-7259, peterisely@yahoo.com), Joelle Casteix (949-322-7434, jcasteix@gmail.com)