ROME
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
For immediate release: Wednesday, April 30, 2014
Statement by Barbara Blaine of Chicago, president of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( European cell +39 366 1160224, U.S. cell +1 312 399 4747, Rome hotel- +39 06 598591; SNAPblaine@gmail.com )
If Pope Francis’ new abuse study panel is to be effective and seem credible, it must act quickly. After all, Catholic officials have dealt with clergy sexual violence privately for centuries and publicly for decades, yet painfully little reform has happened or is happening. And clergy sex crimes and cover ups keep happening while predator priests are being protected, moved and kept on the job.
[The News]
We’re pessimistic about this panel. But if it is to have any real chance of making any difference, we believe the panel should:
–make their meeting agendas public (long in advance),
–make their meeting minutes public (promptly afterwards),
–immediately denounce the new, secretive Italian bishops’ abuse policy,
–publicly rebuke even a few individual bishops, by name, who are clearly concealing or have concealed abuse, and
–hold open, public hearings about the church’s on-going abuse and cover up crisis in at least a dozen nations.
Secrecy has enabled child rape and cover up. Openness will help expose and prevent it.
Why are we pessimistic? Because over the past two decades, hundreds of similar church panels have been set up at the national and diocesan levels across the world. Because these panels often operate in secrecy, with little real input from independent sources and have almost no power we believe they are mostly ineffective.
These hand-picked panel members –mostly all Catholic church-goers –have rarely spoken out in public, even in the most egregious cases of recklessness, callousness and deceit by Catholic officials. Thus, they lend their names and reputations to an effort that is destined to fail because bishops retain all their power and continue with their irresponsible complicity.
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