ROME
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
Posted by David Clohessy on March 03, 2013
■“No one from Curia should be made pope,” victims say
■Group also wants some older cardinals out of Monday meeting
■SNAP worries Vatican insiders are tied to corruption & last 2 popes
■“That makes ‘cleaning house’ & exposing cover ups tougher,” it says
■Victims urge top church staff to try to persuade some peers to “go home”
■SNAP: Sodano & 5 other “complicit” cardinals should be sent away or stay away
WHAT
At a news conference, holding signs and childhood photos, clergy sex abuse victims will urge the College of Cardinals to
–elect a non-Curia member as the next pope, and
–try to persuade several elderly “complicit colleagues” – who can’t vote in the conclave but may attend Monday’s General Congregation meeting – to stay home this week because of their involvement in hiding clergy sex crimes.
WHEN
Monday, March 4 at 3:15 pm
WHO
Two leaders of an international support group for clergy sex abuse victims called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, including the organization’s long-time executive director
WHERE
The Orange Hotel at 86 Via Crescenzio in Rome (+39 06 686 8969)
WHY
Roughly 90 prelates – too old to vote in the conclave – will take part in the General Congregation of Cardinals meetings, which start Monday at 9:30 a.m. SNAP believes that a number of them (Sodano, Connell, Egan, Castrillón Hoyos, Law, McCarrick, and others) are guilty of – or credibly accused of – protecting child molesting clerics. Their peers should push them to stay home, or they should do so voluntarily, the group feels, for the sake of the church and to avoid heaping more pain on wounded victims and betrayed Catholics. (SNAP will hand out copies of a list of them with explanations and links.)
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