UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
For immediate release: Wednesday, April 2, 2014
Statement by Phil Saviano ( 617-983 5075 ) of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests
In a derisive put-down, Boston’s top Catholic official is criticizing the motives of thousands of members of our self-help group.
In an interview published late yesterday by the Washington Post, Cardinal Sean O’Malley dismissed our well-founded skepticism about the latest Catholic abuse panel by claiming that our organization is “very hurt and very angry.”
For a quarter century, we’ve helped expose the complicity of hundreds of Catholic officials in thousands of heinous child sex crimes. So it’s tempting and convenient for most of them to portray us as “angry.” The truth is, however, that most of us are passionate . . . about the safety of children. That’s what drives us. And we’re deeply – and justifiably – disappointed that after nearly 30 years of widely-reported and extensively-documented callous cover ups by seemingly countless Catholic clerics, Pope Francis is setting up yet-another church panel to study abuse.
It’s been said that the best defense is a good offense. So we’re not surprised that O’Malley tries to discredit and dismiss us. In so doing, he joins a long list of his church colleagues who know they can’t defend the indefensible so instead they attack the messengers.
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[From the Washington Post article:
The cardinal from Boston is also one of the eight people recently named to a Vatican commission on protecting children from sex abuse. The pope made a rare media misstep recently when he responded defensively on the subject of abuse, and some survivors of rape by priests have protested that the last thing the Vatican needs is another commission.
O’Malley said his hope for the commission is “to bring together a group of experts and try and help the bishops conferences of the world to develop policies that will be effective for child protection, beginning with the Vatican City. We’d like to see Vatican City model what child protection should be like.’’ Existing policies all over the world, he said, “need to be studied and evaluated and in many cases improved.”
Of the argument that bishops who perpetuated abuse in the past should still be held accountable, he said, “That’s something the commission I’m sure will make recommendations on – and that’s what we will do, make recommendations – and it will be challenging,’’ he added, in part because members of that or any commission include people from very different cultures. “But we are anxious to have input from people who have experience either in their own lives or in working with victims and survivors.’
Asked if he was surprised by the negative response to the commission from the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, he said no: “They are very hurt and they are angry and upset with the church and I understand their anger, but I don’t know that their evaluation is always the most accurate.”]
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