UNITED STATES
The Times-Picayune
By John Simerman, The Times-Picayune
A national victims group at the forefront of revealing clergy sexual abuse allegations against the Roman Catholic Church may soon be forced to reveal its own inner workings, the Chicago Tribune reports today. The report says a Missouri judge has ruled that decades of correspondence of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, be turned over.
The ruling would include correspondence with victims, lawyers and journalists that the group considers confidential. It comes in the case of a Kansas City priest who faces abuse allegations.
Members of the Chicago-based group, which has chapters across the country, fear that the church is pursuing a frontal attack. The group says the ruling could chill victims from coming forward to SNAP. The St. Louis Archdiocese, the report said, is pursuing a similar strategy in another case.
Lawyers for the church argue that their aim is not to violate the privacy of victims, witnesses and others. The correspondence, they say, would shed light on whether plaintiffs who have sued the church revealed their alleged abuse to SNAP earlier, falsifying claims of “repressed memory” under coaching by the group.
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