FLORIDA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
For immediate release: Tuesday, April 12, 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 from the Altoona Pennsylvania area identified last month in a grand jury report now lives in Orlando. We urge Orlando Bishop John Noonan to aggressively seek out anyone in Florida who may have seen, suspected or suffered his crimes.
He is Fr. Martin D. McCamley. A grand jury convened by Pennsylvania’s attorney general found that:
–Fr. McCamley was a sexual partner of another Pennsylvania priest, Father James Bunn,
–The two of them sexually abused the same child, which was “coordinated on the part of McCamley and Bunn.”
–The priest’s “proclivity to engage in impermissible sexual conduct was an open joke among diocesan officials,”
–Fr. McCamley “was infuriated” when one victim “rebuffed” him and the priest “began to retaliate against the boy by criticizing him in choir,” and
–Fr. McCamley was once taken to a hospital with a bleeding rectum.
In 1981, when Fr. McCamley was vice principal of a Catholic High School, he was reported to the bishop for allegedly molesting a boy but the bishop “dismissed the complaint outright.” Catholic officials kept Fr. McCamley on the job, which “endangered children for another 25 years,” the grand jury found.
Since the Vatican hasn’t defrocked Fr. McCamley, as best we can tell, he’s still a priest.
In the face of all this, it’s immoral for Noonan to passively sit in his office and do nothing.
This isn’t rocket science. Noonan knows what a caring shepherd would do here. Noonan should personally go to each parish where Fr. McCamley worked, look his flock in the eye, and beg them – clearly and emphatically – to call police if they have any knowledge or suspicions about Fr. McCamley’s crimes.”
The bishop should also turn any records he may have about Fr. McCamley to law enforcement agencies. And Noonan should use his website, diocesan newspaper and parish bulletins to reach out to
The bishop has a public relations staff. It would be quick, simple and easy for him to stand up before cameras and say ‘I worry that Fr. McCamley may still be hurting kids. I implore you to call police and prosecutors now if you saw, suspected or suffered his crimes.’ How hard is this?”
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