CHICAGO (IL)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
For immediate release: Thursday, May 22, 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 )
Chicago’s most notorious predator priest Daniel McCormack will be in court today on new child sex charges.
There’s a simple but crucial lesson here and it can be summed up in the old adage “Where there’s a will, there’s a way.”
We believe law enforcement officials have brought these charges, in part, because they fear McCormack could walk free soon if the effort to have him permanently locked up isn’t taken.
So this is a smart prevention step. We applaud police and prosecutors and, most of all, the victim – all of whom are helping to stop future child sex crimes through these new charges.
But, this development shows that when law enforcement officials really put forth the effort, they can find ways to get and keep child molesting clerics behind bars. All too often, prosecutors decline to press charges against clergy who commit or conceal heinous child sex crimes, claiming they’re hamstrung by archaic laws, limited resources, uncooperative witnesses, intimidated victims or other reasons. The real reason, we often suspect, is simply a lack of political will to take on powerful, popular, well-funded institutions like the Catholic archdiocese.
In our 25 years, however, we’ve seen determined and savvy police and prosecutors become increasingly creative and aggressive about pursuing criminal cases against predator priests and their complicit supervisors. We hope that this trend continues and escalates.
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