PENNSYLVANIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
Posted by David Clohessy on January 30, 2013
A support group for clergy sex abuse victims is blasting Altoona-Johnstown Bishop Mark Leonard Bartchak over what they call his “continued secrecy and deception” in the case of a credibly accused Catholic cleric.
Leaders of SNAP have discovered that Br. Stephen P. Baker – who is accused of molesting dozens of boys in Ohio and Pennsylvania – has also worked in Michigan and Virginia, a fact that Altoona-Johnstown church officials have kept hidden in recent discussions of Baker’s history.
“Any official with real compassion would want every victim of Baker – no matter where they live or where they were hurt – to get help,” said Judy Jones, SNAP’s Midwest Associate Director. “How can Bartchak justify telling only part of the truth. There’s only one reason he’d keep quiet at this point about other places Baker works: he wants to continue protecting other corrupt Catholic officials and prevent other suffering victims from stepping forward.”
Today, outside the Detroit Archdiocesan headquarters, SNAP members are holding a news conference. They’re calling on the archbishop there to reach out to others who “saw, suspected or suffered” crimes by Baker when he worked at St. Mary’s Prep., Orchard Lake, MI between 1983-1985.
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