GENEVA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
For immediate release: Thursday, Jan. 16
Statement by Mary Caplan of Manhattan, national board member of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( Mcaplan682@aol.com )
Two high-ranking Catholic officials today basically told a United Nations panel that the Vatican has little real power to stop bishops from hiding clergy sex crimes. We’re very saddened that such a huge and powerful church bureaucracy continues to pretend it’s powerless over its own officials.
These clerics said some nice things today in Geneva. But unfortunately, the nice public words today by Catholic officials differ radically from the actual and distressing private behavior of Catholic officials. Before the cameras, the church hierarchy often denounces predators and thanks victims. But behind closed doors, the church hierarchy often protects predators and rebuffs victims (despite repeated pledges of reform).
The Catholic officials today repeatedly cited vague, minor, new and unenforced internal church abuse guidelines. But these are meaningless because no one is ever punished for breaking church abuse guidelines.
And many of the guidelines focus on child molesting clerics while ignoring the bigger problem: corrupt church officials who are still endangering kids, moving offenders, stonewalling law enforcement and deceiving parishioners and the public.
Catholic officials couldn’t cite a single case in which the Vatican punished even a single church staff for endangering a single child or helping a single predator. That’s because this almost never happens. And until it does, kids won’t be measurably safer in the church.
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