ST. LOUIS (MO)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
For immediate release: Monday, July 21, 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 )
Archbishop Robert Carlson keeps playing “good cop” in the Fr. Joseph Jiang case while letting (or perhaps encouraging) a few misguided parishioners play “bad cop” by publicly professing the priest’s alleged innocence despite two accusers, two criminal indictments and a pending civil abuse and cover up lawsuit.
This is immoral and cruel.
Today, five or six Fr. Jiang backers publicly rallied around Fr. Jiang, picketing the courthouse claiming the priest didn’t sexually assault either of the youngsters he’s accused of sexually assaulting. Carlson is tolerating – or maybe prodding – them to do so. And that scares others who were hurt and keeps them silence. And it discourages others who saw or suspected abuse into giving up and doing nothing.
As adults, we can either make it harder or easier for kids and teens to report molesters. The moral choice is to make it easier. Carlson is making it harder.
Carlson knows how to respond when allegations of clergy sex crimes surface. But when his close pal Fr. Joseph Jiang was arrested on a second set of criminal child sex charges in April, Carlson chose to publicly cast doubt on and violate the privacy of the second alleged victim’s family. Shame on him and on every person on his staff who played a role in this callous, self-serving statement.
Carlson himself publicly cast doubt on this courageous family when, weeks ago, he issued a statement claiming that the second victim’s family supposedly didn’t mention child sex abuse until recently.
Everyone knows that the overwhelming majority of child sex abuse victims can’t understand and disclose their trauma until decades later. So delays in reporting child sex crimes are not unusual or relevant at all.
But by mentioning the alleged delay, Carlson is deliberately casting doubt on the victim’s family.
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