VIRGINIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
For immediate release: Thursday, April 16
Statement by Judy Jones of St. Louis, Midwest Associate Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( h: 636.433.2511, c: 314.974.5003, SNAPjudy@gmail.com )
More civil child sex abuse and cover up lawsuits involving one of the most prolific child molesting clerics in the US have settled. He’s Brother Stephen P. Baker who worked in Norfolk Virginia and four other states (Minnesota, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Ohio).
In the 1970s, he worked at two church facilities in Norfolk (in the Richmond diocese): Holy Trinity Catholic Church and School and James Barry-Robinson High School and Home for Boys.
Br. Baker’s accused of molesting more than 90 kids. We suspect that literally dozens of his Catholic colleagues and supervisors knew or suspected his crimes and ignored or hid them.
In 2005, church officials paid one Br. Baker victim $50,000 but told no one. As a result, “Baker may have had access to children through the late 2000s,” according to the independent archive group BishopAccountability.org.
We call on Richmond Bishop Francis DiLorenzo to use his vast resources – church websites, parish bulletins, pulpit announcements and news releases – to aggressively seek out others in Minnesota who were assaulted by Br. Baker. If he refuses, we call on the dozens of Virginia priests who run parishes to do this outreach.
We hope these settlements bring long-overdue and much-needed help, comfort and closures to these brave men. And we hope that they will prod others, who may have knowledge or suspicions about Baker’s crimes or his supervisors’ cover ups, to speak up.
We believe that Br. Baker abused more kids. Some of them, now adults, are likely still suffering in shame, silence and self-blame. We want them to know that they are not alone, not at fault and can get better, but only if they find the courage to break their silence and get independent help.
And we want Catholic officials in all four states to take vigorous steps to reach out to those who’ve been hurt by Br. Baker, instead of saying and doing little to acknowledge his crimes and help his victims.
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