UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
For immediate release: Friday, Nov. 20
Statement by David Clohessy of St. Louis, Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (314 566 9790, SNAPclohessy@aol.com, davidgclohessy@gmail.com)
This week, Cardinal Bernard Law’s ex-spin doctor takes charge of public relations for America’s Catholic bishops. It’s a sad commentary on how little is changing in the church hierarchy on abuse.
During the week that a film called Spotlight opens nationally, Vermont Bishop Christopher Coyne becomes director of communications for the US Conference of Catholic Bishops. That movie depicts horrific deceit and corruption in the Boston Archdiocese, where Coyne worked as Law’s primary mouthpiece, a post he held from 2002-2005. (See Rocco Palmo’s blog “Whispers in the Loggia.”)
Pope Francis should never have promoted Coyne. Coyne’s brother bishops should have never given him this post. But now that he’s in this position, Coyne must lead by example and, at a bare minimum, do what 30 US bishops have reluctantly done: post names of proven, admitted and credibly accused child molesting clerics on his diocesan website.
For years in Boston, time and time again, Coyne repeated deceptive public relations spin about heinous child sex crimes and callous cover ups by Law and other Catholic officials. How does this qualify Coyne to lead America’s bishops?
While a bishop in Indiana, we prodded Coyne to aggressively reach out to anyone who may have seen crimes by Fr. Francis Markey who was arrested by US marshals at his Indiana home in connection with the alleged rape of a 15-year-old boy twice, including the day of the boy’s father’s funeral.
As best we can tell, he ignored our request.
[SNAP]
And he’s done nothing – in Boston or Indianapolis or Burlington – that gives us any hope he’ll do any better on children’s safety in the future.
So we urge Catholics and citizens in Boston and Burlington to be skeptical and vigilant and report known or suspected clergy sex crimes and cover ups to secular authorities, not church officials.
And we urge Coyne to show that he’s capable of real leadership, not just PR spin, by posting predators’ names, photos and work histories on the Vermont diocesan website, to keep kids safe, help victims heal and deter more cover ups.
In his new post, Coyne will no doubt extol the virtues of “openness.” He must practice those virtues too. And he must start in the most critical area: the protection of children from predator priests.
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