ST. LOUIS (MO)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
Posted by David Clohessy on August 08, 2012
An Iowa man who says he was molested as a boy by a nun is prodding the largest group of US Catholic sisters to do more to “protect the vulnerable and heal the wounded.”
Steve Theisen and other members of a self-help group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPnetwork.org) are spending much of this week on a sidewalk outside a St. Louis Missouri hotel where Catholic nuns are meeting. SNAP is urging the 900 sisters, here for the annual meeting of the Leadership Council of Women Religious (LCWR), to “act more prudently to prevent future child sex crimes by nuns and more compassionately towards those who have been hurt by past child sex crimes by nuns.”
“Tragically, nuns are moving even more slowly and timidly to deal with child molesters in their midst than bishops are,” said Theisen. “No one knows how many nuns have victimized kids, but no one’s even trying to find out. Nor is anyone really taking any real steps to prevent such devastating crimes in the future.”
According to BishopAccountability.org, there are at least 77 US nuns who have been publicly accused of child sex crimes. SNAP says it has heard from several hundred adult men and women who report having been sexually assaulted as youngsters by nuns.
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