ROME
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
Victims plead with Vatican officials
“Please stop honoring wrongdoers like JPII,” they beg
SNAP: “Those who commit or conceal crimes keep getting praised”
And that, they say, encourages other clerics to continue wrongdoing
Such callousness also deepens the pain of victims & parishioners, group charges
Two events in Rome on Friday, and one in Geneva in May, will feature victims
WHAT
Holding signs and childhood pictures at a news conference, clergy sex abuse victims from Australia, Spain, Austria and the U.S. will
– denounce Vatican officials for making Pope John Paul II a saint,
– beg Pope Francis and other church staff to stop honoring those who commit and conceal child sex crimes and cover ups, and
– urge them to teach their flocks and employees how to act properly when clergy sex abuse reports surface.
WHEN
Friday, April 25 at 11:00 a.m. (Rome time/Central European time)
WHERE
Hotel Orange- Via Crescenzio, 86, 00193 Roma, Italy; +39 06 686 8969
WHO
Three-four clergy sex abuse victims who are leaders in an international support group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. One is the founder and long time president of the organization, one heads SNAP’s Australia chapter, the others are SNAP leaders from Europe.
WHY
SNAP leaders are convinced that clergy sex crimes and cover ups persist, in part, because the Catholic hierarchy praises wrongdoers instead of punishing them. Across the world, church buildings, scholarships, stained glass windows, streets, sports fields, etc. are named after proven wrongdoers and church speaking roles and honorific titles keep being given to them.
In just a handful of cases across the globe, clerics who protected predators and endangered kids were ever so slightly rebuked (mostly lower level church staff and only after their misdeeds were made public through civil lawsuits or investigative journalism). In many cases, wrongdoers were subsequently promoted.
In virtually all cases, no matter how deceitful or egregious their misconduct is, no cleric is ever defrocked, demoted, disciplined, or even denounced by his church supervisors, at the parish, diocesan or Vatican levels. That encourages even more reckless, callous and deceitful actions, SNAP says.
The canonization of Pope John Paul II, who for decades presided over thousands of clergy sex crimes and cover ups, is the latest and most hurtful example of this irresponsible pattern.
“For Pope Francis and Catholic officials to honor JPII with this exalted title is extraordinarily heartless and unwise. It rubs salt into the already deep wounds of tens of thousands of still-suffering clergy sex abuse victims and their loved ones across the globe,” said Nicky Davis of Sydney, who heads the SNAP Australia chapter.
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.