DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
For immediate release: Wednesday, Sept. 10, 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 )
A judge on Monday declined to order a Catholic archbishop to be extradited from the Vatican to the Caribbean to face child sex charges.
We’re deeply disappointed. And we’re worried that the cleric may disappear before prosecutors and police in Italy, Poland and the Dominican Republic can apprehend him.
He’s Archbishop Józef Wesolowski (though he was recently defrocked). In September 2013, he was exposed as credibly accused child molester, but only after Vatican officials had quietly whisked him to Rome.
We don’t understand this ruling, nor the delays by law enforcement officials in three nations to pursue this dangerous cleric. We hope this ruling will be quickly overturned or that secular authorities in other countries will arrest him.
We hope Vatican officials do all they can to help police and prosecutors pursue Wesolowski and we hope that every single person who saw, suspected or suffered his crimes will find the courage to come forward, report to police, and start healing.
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