NEW YORK
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, September 18, 2014

Statement by David Clohessy of St. Louis, Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 314 566 9790, davidgclohessy@gmail.com )

The sentencing of an Albany Catholic deacon for child sex crimes shows again that church officials continue to side with accused clerics over innocent children and, as a result, more children are hurt.

Albany Catholic officials defrocked Angel Garcia after reports that he sexually abused a minor in the early 1990s. We suspect that’s all they did. We strongly doubt that they gave full information to and worked hard to help police and prosecutors. We strongly doubt that they held a news conference to announce that accusations against Garcia were founded or begged victims, witnesses and whistleblowers to call police. We strongly doubt that they aggressively warned parishioners…