WASHINGTON (DC)
NBC Washington
By John Lewis
A support group of sex abuse survivors will hold a vigil Tuesday outside St. Matthew’s Cathedral in D.C., just a few hours before Pope Francis is scheduled to arrive in the area.
The Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP) will bear signs and childhood photos of adults who committed suicide after being molested by priests as children. SNAP Outreach Director Barbara Dorris said she expects at least five or six survivors attend the vigil.
“Right now, this is a really tough week for survivors,” said Dorris. “The pope is being hailed as this hero, and yet for survivors he’s done pretty much nothing. He has’t done anything that makes children safer or discipline bishops that protect predators.”
The group will meet at 1 p.m. outside the church at 1725 Rhode Island Ave. NW to express their disapproval for the pope’s popularity “largely obscuring the ongoing sexual violence and cover-up crisis in the church,” SNAP said in a release.
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