MICHIGAN
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
For immediate release: Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2013
David Clohessy of St. Louis, Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 314 566 9790, SNAPclohessy@aol.com )
Father John Doerfler of the Diocese of Green Bay is the new bishop of Marquette, Michigan. We are disappointed with this promotion.
Doerfler has been a high ranking official in that diocese for some time. It’s a diocese with a terrible track record on clergy sex abuse and cover up cases.
We believe that Fr. Doerfler is also associated with a controversial Catholic group called Courage:
We hope that as Marquette’s new bishop he will immediately warn parents, parishioners and the public about a former Marquette priest, Fr. Benedict Van der Putten, who was defrocked due to credible child sex abuse allegations and who now lives in Hawaii.
It’s irresponsible for Catholic officials to recruit, educate, ordain, hire, train and transfer priests and merely oust them when they molest kids. Bishops should also warn others about them, especially when they move far away as Van der Putten has done. We strongly suspect that families who live near him now have no idea that he’s a predator.
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