VERMONT
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
For immediate release: Friday, Nov. 20, 2015
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, Vermont Bishop Christopher Coyne takes charge of communication for the US Conference of Catholic Bishops. What irony: He takes over during the week that a film called ‘Spotlight’ opens nationally. That movie depicts horrific deceit and corruption in the Boston Archdiocese, where Coyne worked as Cardinal Bernard 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?
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