MICHIGAN
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
For immediate release: Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016
Statement by David Clohessy of St. Louis, Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (314 566 9790, 314 645 5915 home, davidgclohessy@gmail.com)
A predator priest, Fr. Louis Grandpre, has passed away. As best we can tell, Detroit Archbishop Allen Vignernon kept this quiet, denying abuse victims months of comfort. Vignernon seems incapable of handling any part of the church’s on-going abuse and cover up crisis with honesty and compassion. Shame on him for not letting parents, parishioners and the public know about this predator’s passing.
In 2013, when Fr. Grandpre was finally exposed as a child molester, Vignernon was deceptive. He implied that this was the first allegation of wrongdoing against the priest. It wasn’t.
A private archdiocesan memo showed that Fr. Grandpre was also credibly accused of sexual harassment 15 years ago. How do we know the allegation was “credible?” Because a mediator suggested the victim be paid $160,000. And remember, that was almost 20 years ago.
It would have taken Vigneron minutes to approve and have his public relations team send out a news release about Fr. Grandpre’s death. That would have brought relief to those who worried, until now, that Fr. Grandpre might still be hurting children. That also would have shown that Vigneron takes seriously his repeated pledges to be “open” about predator priests.
Fr. Grandpre retired as pastor of St. Paul of Tarsus Parish in Clinton Township in 2003 but stayed in the parish. A decade later, in 2013, archdiocesan officials disclosed that he’d been credibly accused of molesting a child. We suspect he molested several kids.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.