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SNAP Calls For 3rd-Party Investigation
By Ken Little
A group of survivors of priest abuses is continuing calls for a third party to investigate the Catholic Church and allegations against priests. Former Priest Willam Casey is among four former pastors at Notre Dame Catholic Church in Greeneville listed among 13 priests and former priests accused or convicted of sexually abusing a minor. The list was released Nov. 2 by the Diocese of Nashville. The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priestsgroup claims there are more names not yet made public, an allegation that the Diocese of Nashville has refuted. East Tennessee SNAP advocate Susan Vance said this week that an independent, third-party investigation of the Catholic Church in Tennessee needs to he conducted in order to get all the facts. Nine of the 13 priests and former priests on the list released by the diocese are dead. Two others, including Casey, are in prison. None are in active ministry, the Diocese of Nashville said in a news release. The other three priests who served at Notre Dame Catholic Church are Monsignor William Floyd Davis, who died in 2011; Father James Arthur Rudisill, who died in 2008; and Father Edward Albert Walenga, who died in 1983. Information obtained from Notre Dame Catholic Church through the Diocese of Knoxville shows that the four pastors all served at the Greeneville church before 1988. Davis was a pastor there between 1966 and 1968, Walenga was pastor in 1968 and 1969, Rudisill was pastor during part of 1971 and Casey served as pastor at the Greeneville church between 1972 and 1976. All four priests had other assignments throughout the state during the course of their careers. Vance said the actions of the church point toward an ongoing practice of shifting pedophile priests to other parishes, often in rural areas. Vance said the Diocese of Nashville routinely moved pedophile priests to rural parishes in East Tennessee and elsewhere when it oversaw Catholic Church activities for all of the state prior to 1988. The Diocese of Knoxville responded by characterizing claims made by SNAP as “baseless.” A church spokesman said earlier this month that the Diocese of Knoxville, which was formed in 1988, was unaware of the actions of alleged pedophile priests before that year because records are kept by the Nashville diocese. SNAP has called for a third-party investigation into the Catholic Church in Tennessee, requesting “that the proper authorities investigate church files.” Victims also asked the three dioceses in Tennessee to cross-reference information in the files of each diocese to make identification of pedophile priests easier. SNAP also asks that the statutes of limitation on child sex abuse in Tennessee be abolished. Vance said Tuesday that SNAP members “do not believe the diocese wants to come up with all the names of these pedophiles.” “The list is larger than anyone thinks, and complete honesty about this would be devastating to the Diocese of Nashville. Add in the Diocese of Memphis and Diocese of Knoxville, and the people would be horrified to know what those secret files actually say about what our children and teens across Tennessee have endured,” Vance said. Vance reiterated the need for an independent investigation into the archives of all three dioceses in Tennessee. “Nothing short of a third-party investigation will do. We now see how incompetent they are in policing themselves when their list of pedophiles must be constantly corrected and modified,” Vance said.The Diocese of Knoxville had no immediate response Wednesday to Vance’s statements.
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