Survivors of clergy abuse gather for vigil, protest

By Maxine Streicher
WBFF TV
November 10, 2019

https://bit.ly/33CnGAh

Survivors of clergy abuse and their supporters gathered in downtown Baltimore ahead of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops meeting that begins Monday.

They came together to announce which candidate they are supporting for the next President of the U.S.C.C.B.

Becky Ianni remembers when she became a victim of clergy abuse.

“He abused me over a period of four years. He became a friend of the family so he would come and have dinner. He went on vacation with us. He bought us our first color television so it was a very grooming process,” she said.

Ianni says she wasn’t his only victim, there were many including her own brother.

“I felt like it was my fault and that I was a bad dirty little girl so I didn’t think about it, and I came across a picture of myself with my perpetrator when I was 48 in 2006 and everything came rushing back,” she said.

Ianni says her abuser committed suicide years earlier, but she went to the church in hopes of an apology.

“I needed them to tell me sorry and that I wasn’t going to hell for telling on a Priest and I didn’t get that. I was kind of treated like a liability and I didn’t get an apology until like 12 months later,” she said.

Ianni is now the director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.

She’s devoted her life to helping others with stories similar to hers, sending a message of hope.

“You’re not alone. You can reach out you can call anybody on the SNAP page and they’ll listen and they’ll believe you,” she said.

Ianni says the new President will be voted on tomorrow afternoon during the first day of the conference.

She says many on the list of candidates have either been accused of abuse or have covered up cases of abuse.

Ianni says SNAP opposes the top candidate Archbishop Jose H. Gomez of Los Angeles, CA.

SNAP is supporting Bishop Daniel E. Flores of Brownsville, TX.