ST. LOUIS (MO)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
For immediate release: Monday, April 21, 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 )
We are members of a support group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPnetwork.org). Our mission is to heal the wounded and protect the vulnerable. Despite the word “priest” in our title, we help anyone who was hurt in any institutional setting.
We have two key concerns – what Archbishop Robert Carlson is saying about the Fr. Joseph Jiang case and what Archbishop Carlson is doing about the Fr. Jiang case.
What he’s SAYING about the case is deceptive, self-serving and cruel.
There are 52 publicly accused St. Louis child molesting Catholic clerics. Archbishop Robert Carlson has been involved in clergy sex cases since 1984. And Carlson is a smart man, surrounded by plenty of smart lawyers and smart public relations people.
So Carlson knows how to respond when allegations of clergy sex crimes surface. But when his close pal Fr. Joseph Jiang was arrested Friday on a second set of criminal child sex charges, Carlson chose to publicly cast doubt on and violate the privacy of the second alleged victim’s family. Shame on him and on every person on his staff who played a role in this callous, self-serving statement.
Carlson publicly cast doubt on this courageous family when, on Friday, he issued a statement claiming that the second victim’s family supposedly didn’t mention child sex abuse until this week.
Everyone knows that the overwhelming majority of child sex abuse victims can’t understand and disclose their trauma until decades later. So delays in reporting child sex crimes are not unusual or relevant at all.
But by mentioning the alleged delay, Carlson is deliberately casting doubt on the victim’s family.
(What’s ironic here is that in many cases, Carlson and other Catholic officials question and criticize victims who step forward decades after their abuse. Now, a victim reports promptly, while he is still a child, and Carlson attacks him too for his timing. When exactly does Carlson feel it’s appropriate for those who are raped, sodomized or fondled by priests to speak up?)
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