PHILADELPHIA (PA)
NBC News
[with video]
by HASANI GITTENS
Once again, not enough!
That’s the message from the Survivor Network of those Abused by Priests, known as SNAP, following Pope Francis’ message Sunday morning that he had met with some victims of clergy sex abuse.
“Is a child anywhere on earth safer now that a pope, for maybe the seventh or eighth time or ninth time, has briefly chatted with abuse victims? No,” said SNAP Director David Clohessy, in a statement.
The comments came after Francis in Philadelphia Sunday morning said he had met with survivors of clerical sex abuse.
The pope said he promised to “zealously” protect young people and that “all those responsible are held accountable.”
But SNAP just dismissed the meeting as a “smart public relations move.”
“To give some perspective, let’s assume that roughly the same percentage of priests molest the same percentage of kids across the globe. In the U.S., in 2012, two church experts estimate 100,000 kids in the U.S.” wrote Clohessy. “The US is about 6 percent of the world’s population. If you do the math, that means there are more than 1.5 million men and women on this planet who have been raped, sodomized or molested by Catholic priests.”
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