KENTUCKY
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
For immediate release: Friday, March 14, 2014
For more information: David Clohessy ( 314-566-9790, SNAPclohessy@aol.com )
Controversial cardinal to speak at event
He’s accused of covering up child sex crimes
Victims feel his visit to KY “sends the wrong message”
“It encourages future cover ups & hurts victims,” they say
SNAP to Lexington diocese: “Tell your complicit prelate to stay home”
A controversial church official will address a Catholic event in Kentucky later this month and a support group for clergy sex abuse victims wants him to be disinvited.
On Saturday, March 22, retired Philadelphia Archbishop Cardinal Rigali is to be a featured speaker at the Catholic Men Servant Leaders annual conference in Lexington.
Rigali headed the Philadelphia archdiocese when prosecutors there released a lengthy grand jury report that harshly criticized the church hierarchy’s role in concealing clergy sex crimes.
In 2011, the New York Times reported that a “cloud hangs over Cardinal Rigali’s legacy — his mishandling of the abuse scandal,” noting that “the scope of crimes committed by priests — including rape, as described graphically by a grand jury in February — had shocked many because it had all been described before, by another grand jury in 2005.”
At one point, “Cardinal Rigali said there were no priests in active ministry who had been accused of abuse,” but a month later, “he reversed field and suspended 21 of them in one day, prompting criticism that he should have alerted prosecutors sooner,” the Times said.
Because of that, leaders of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests want Lexington Catholic officials to oust Rigali from the upcoming event.
“Welcoming and honoring Rigali sends precisely the wrong message and hurts already suffering victims and betrayed Catholics,” said Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, outreach director of SNAP. “It encourages future cover ups by saying ‘no matter how much you endanger children you can still be rewarded.”
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