UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

[Catholic Religious Men’s Leaders Explore New Evangelization, Renew Child Protection Commitment, and Elect New Officers]

For immediate release: Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Statement by David Clohessy of St. Louis, Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 314 566 9790, SNAPclohessy@aol.com )

A Delaware priest, who claims there’s a “war on the Roman Catholic priesthood” has just been elected head of America’s Catholic religious orders. He also insists that two convicted child molesters are innocent and that prosecutors are “overzealous.” We think he’s an extremist.

He is Fr. James J. Greenfield, an official with the Wilmington-Philadelphia Province of the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales. He insists that his colleague Fr. Charles Engelhardt and Bernard Spero, who were found guilty of child sex crimes in January by a Philadelphia jury, were wrongly convicted.

Fr. Greenfield…