MICHIGAN
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
For immediate release: Friday, Nov. 13, 2015
Statement by David Clohessy of St. Louis, director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those abused by Priests (314 566 9790, davidgclohessy@gmail.com)
In what may be the most terse and least compassionate church announcement of this sort we’ve ever seen, Detroit Catholic officials admit that a local priest is “credibly accused” of child sex crimes. Shame on Archbishop Allen Vigneron for his self-serving statement about Fr. Thomas J. Cain.
Instead of minimizing Fr. Cain’s crimes or distancing himself from them, Vigneron should be aggressively seeking out his victims and working hard to warn parents, police, prosecutors, parishioners and the public about every each of the 64 publicly accused Detroit predator priests (See BishopAccountability.org).
(The real number of child molesting clerics in the Detroit area, we firmly believe, is at least twice that high.)
Vignernon should be exposing every one of them, living or dead, and every church employee who ignored or concealed their crimes. And he should do so now, not in a piecemeal fashion every time a victim, witness or whistleblower sufficiently pressures him to name one more predator. He should be prodding anyone with information or suspicions about clergy sex crimes or cover ups to call police and prosecutors. (Even if the predator is deceased, sometimes those who destroyed evidence, intimidated victims, threatened witnesses, discredited whistleblowers or helped a criminal evade apprehension can be charged.)
Pope Francis has said “Everything possible must be done to rid the church of the scourge of the sexual abuse of minors and to open pathways of reconciliation and healing for those who were abused.” Is a cold, tiny announcement like this one about Fr. Cain honoring Francis’ pledge? We don’t think so.
We beg anyone who saw, suspected or suffered crimes by Fr. Cain to come forward, get help, expose wrongdoers, deter cover ups and start healing. We urge them to contact independent sources of help, not biased, self-serving church officials. And we ask Detroit Catholics to prod Vigneron to personally visit every parish where Fr. Cain worked, seeking out and helping others who may still be suffering in shame, silence and self-blame because of these horrific crimes.
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