CALIFORNIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
For immediate release: Monday, May 5, 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 )
Nowhere are kids more at risk of sexual violence than in the developing world. That’s why it’s so immoral when predator priests are sent there from the developed world by callous Catholic supervisors.
Fr. Carlos Urrutigoity went from Scranton Pennsylvania, where he assaulted several kids, to Paraguay (where he’s now second-in-command of a diocese).
Fr. Joseph Jeyapaul raped a Minnesota girl, Megan Peterson, just a few years ago. He returned to India and until recently, oversaw a group of schools there, even though his bishop knew he was a fugitive from justice. He’s being extradited now.)
Fr. Nicholas Aguilar Rivera, one of California’s most notorious and prolific predators, went from Los Angeles to Mexico.
Fr. William Christensen, who sexually assaulted boys in a St. Louis boarding school, was sent to Bangladesh, where he’s accused of molesting dozens more.
There are hundreds of such examples – predators from Belgium, England and Canada being sent to India, Uganda and the Philippines.
(And while Italy isn’t a developing nation, Rome is the literal and figurative power center of Catholicism, where millions of devout families – many with teenaged daughters -pass through every year. So it’s incredibly irresponsible for the U.S. Marianists to send Fr. Charles Miller to work there, after Miller molested at least one U.S. teenager. He’s still on the job today.)
So the bottom line is kids are being endangered, predators are being moved, and bishops are being callous, doing little or nothing to safeguard the vulnerable. That’s reckless and wrong.
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.