MINNESOTA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
For immediate release: Wednesday, Feb. 12
Statement by David Clohessy of St. Louis, Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 314 566 9790, SNAPclohessy@aol.com )
We’re glad two top Catholic officials will be deposed about clergy sex crimes and cover ups. But there’s something wrong when police cannot question them but civil lawyers can.
We have the deepest respect for law enforcement personnel. But as of just a couple of weeks ago, St. Paul’s police chief said his staff have been unable to talk with Fr. Kevin McDonough, who is perhaps the most clearly implicated wrongdoer over his decades of deceit in the archdiocese.
Why not?
We again call on Twin Cities police and prosecutors to step up their efforts to go after Catholic officials who conceal sex crimes against kids.
And less than a week ago, a Ramsey County grand jury indicted a murder suspect. But when we pushed for a grand jury to investigate cover ups of child sex cases by Catholic officials, we were told that in Minnesota, grand juries are “not typically used” in situations like this. (It’s not “typical” to have such obviously long standing, widespread and continuing complicity by top officials in covering up child sex crimes as is happening in the archdiocese.)
We beg Ramsey County’s prosecutor to re-consider his position and set up a grand jury.
We first asked for one almost six months ago. We renew this plea now.
[SNAP]
We hope we’ll soon be proven wrong, but we remain skeptical of claims that law enforcement is doing “everything possible” to investigate and pursue Catholic officials who clearly have – and still are – endangering kids, concealing crimes, stonewalling police, protecting wrongdoers and deceiving parishioners and the public.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.