CANADA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
For immediate release: Thursday, March 6, 2014
For more info: Melanie Jula Sakoda 925-708-6175 cell, melanie.sakoda@gmail.com, Cappy Larson cappy@rlarson.com, David Clohessy 314-566-9790 cell, SNAPclohessy@aol.com
Victims blast Ottawa bishop
He professes “neutrality” in clergy sex case
But group says that “helps criminals & hurts kids”
They want diocese-wide ban on backing predators
A support group for clergy sex abuse victims is blasting an Ottawa bishop for claiming to be neutral in a dispute over a fundraising event for a convicted archbishop.
Last week members of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, wrote to the leader of the Archdiocese of Canada of the Orthodox Church in America (OCA), asking him to denounce a proposed March 5th fundraiser in Ottawa for Archbishop Seraphim Storheim. The group also asked the bishop to order church employees and to urge parishioners to refrain from publicly supporting Storheim. The archbishop was convicted in January of sexually abusing an 11 year old altar boy.
[SNAP]
In an email to SNAP on March 04, 2014, Bishop Irenee Rochon (613-223-7780, bishopirenee@archdiocese.ca), the bishop of Québec City, refused to help. He wrote, “This painful affair is still before the courts and until the process is complete, the Church will continue its position of neutrality. … The Church has not engaged in any fundraising activities, but it cannot condemn the activities of parishioners while the matter is still before the courts.”
(The complete text of the email is pasted below.)
Rochon was appointed as the administrator of the Archdiocese of Canada after Storheim’s arrest in November, 2010, on charges of abusing 11 year old twin boys.
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