MINNESOTA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
[with copy of the memo]
Internal memo shows church dispute
Lutherans say they were “unaware” of costs
And they’re refusing to pay for expensive lobbying
Dispute stems from Catholic-led effort against child sex victims
For immediate release: Thursday, Nov. 7, 2013
For more information: David Clohessy of St. Louis, SNAP Director (314) 566-9790 cell, SNAPclohessy@aol.com
A Protestant church official claims, in an internal memo written this week, that he and his colleagues were kept in the dark about an expensive but unsuccessful Catholic-led lobbying against a Minnesota child safety law.
The memo, sent by Lutheran Bishop Peter Rogness on November 5 to the Saint Paul Area Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, was written as a response to a Star Tribune headlined “Archdiocese led lobby to stop abuse law change.”
In the memo, Rogness claims that “records are sketchy” but “the cost of the lobbying” against the Child Victims Act “was an expenditure of which we Lutherans were unaware.”
(A copy of the memo, obtained by SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, is below.)
And Rogness says “In recent months, we were surprised by a request that we help pay for costs which we had neither authorized nor budgeted, and therefore have not paid.”
Leaders of SNAP, say they’re “not surprised” that Catholic officials didn’t disclose lobbying costs to the Lutherans.
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