TEXAS
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
For immediate release: Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2014
Statement by David Clohessy of St. Louis, Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 314 566 9790, SNAPclohessy@aol.com )
Michael F. Olson formally takes over today as the bishop of the Ft. Worth Catholic diocese.
Since he was selected months ago, several Catholic officials and institutions have posted on their websites the names of child molesting clerics. The first thing tomorrow, Olson should scour the files and disclose the names, photos, whereabouts and work histories of every proven, admitted and credibly accused child molesting cleric who lives/lived or works/worked in the diocese (whether living or deceased, religious order or diocesan). And we hope he will update the list regularly and publicly. (The current list hasn’t been updated in more than six months.)
The list should be easily accessible on the diocese’s homepage and include photos of the priests
There are 12 publicly accused Ft. Worth child molesting clerics (according to BishopAccountability.org). We suspect the real number us three or four or five times higher.
Finally, we hope he will aggressively seek out others who saw, suspected or suffered child sex crimes by Father William Paiz. Last year, Fr. Paiz was accused of assaulting a child at All Saints Catholic Church, St. George Catholic Church and other locations. He worked at Nolan High School.
Tahira Khan Merritt, the attorney for Fr. Paiz’ victim, said she believes that Fr. Paiz may still be working as a priest elsewhere. Bishop Olson should find this out and warn Fr. Paiz’ unsuspecting neighbors of his current whereabouts and his troubled past.
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