KANSAS CITY (MO)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
Abuse victim who endured abuse trial speaks out
Dozens of his family and friends rally around him
Victims also push KC church officials to do more about 2 ousted priests
They are still priests, were part of new settlement, and now live out of state
WHAT
Surrounded by relatives and friends, the KC man who endured a two week clergy sex abuse and cover up trial will speak for the first time publicly about the ordeal and how he was treated by church lawyers.
And clergy sex abuse victims and their supporters will hand out fliers to church goers. The leaflets urge KC’s embattled Catholic bishop to warn the public – in KC, Nevada and Pennsylvania – about two credibly accused KC predator priests who have quietly been sent elsewhere
WHEN
Friday, Oct. 17 at 11:45 a.m.
WHERE
On the sidewalk outside the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, 416 W. 12th in downtown KC MO
WHO
Plaintiff Jon David Couzens and two dozen of his friends and family including members of a support group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPnetwork.org)
WHY
Couzens is one of just two men in Missouri to ever take a clergy sex abuse civil case to trial. Lawyers for KC Bishop Robert Finn deposed him for roughly 25 hours, repeatedly asking extremely detailed and embarrassing questions.
And in court, they revealed deeply personal information about him and drew inferences and “conclusions” about him that deliberately – and deceptively – portrayed him in the most unpleasant and unflattering ways possible.
Two accused predator priests from Kansas City who were involved in the just-settled clergy sex abuse suits have been quietly sent out of state and now live among unsuspecting neighbors, SNAP says.
The group wants Bishop Robert Finn – and bishops in those states – to warn parents, police, prosecutors and parishioners about the clerics.
They are Fr. Mark Honhart and Fr. Thomas Cronin. (Photos of both are at BishopAccountability.org)
Fr. Honhart was ordained in the Kansas City diocese in 1980 and worked there until 2002 when he was transferred to New Mexico and then to Pennsylvania. Three civil lawsuits have been filed against Fr. Honhart with all three allegations having taken place in Kansas City.
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