PITTSBURGH (PA)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
For immediate release: Wednesday, May 14, 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 )
Three more credibly accused child molesting clerics have been publicly exposed for the first time thanks to the courage of victims. We applaud these brave men and women for stepping forward and beg them to contact secular authorities, not church figures.
There are at least two key lessons here.
First, times are slowly changing. It’s somewhat less difficult these days for victims to expose predators. So we encourage anyone who was hurt by clerics – no matter how long ago it happened – to speak up so that the truth can be known, kids can be protected and healing can really happen.
Second, there are obviously many child molesting clerics who have yet to be publicly exposed. So we again prod Catholic officials – as we do nearly every day and have done nearly every day for a quarter century – to go beyond the bare minimum and aggressively use their resources and bully pulpits and websites and bulletins and newspapers to beg those who saw, suspected or suffered clergy sex crimes to speak up.
It’s irresponsible for Catholic officials to passively sit back and wait for the phone to ring. Pittsburgh’s bishop should personally visit every single parish where a proven, admitted and credibly accused priest, nun, seminarian or church employee worked. The bishops should clearly and emphatically beg victims, witnesses and whistleblowers to break their silence by calling police and prosecutors. Terse, carefully crafted three sentence notices tucked far back in a diocesan newspaper or parish bulletin don’t cut it.
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