UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
For immediate release: Sunday, May 1, 2016
Statement by Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, Outreach Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (314 503 0003 cell, bdorris@SNAPnetwork.org)
In a purportedly “forceful” tone, Pope Francis said child molesters must be “severely punished” but “did not specifically mention the church or its response to abuse.”
So what? When will a few papal sentences about how bad abuse is stop being news?
Just this week, a convicted priest who assaulted a California teenager was promoted to head an Oklahoma parish with a parochial school, until parishioners protects and their archbishop backed down.
[SNAP]
Just this week, a second young adult publicly reported being sexually abused as a child by Fr. Greg Yacyshyn who remains on the job in a Long Island parish.
[SNAP]
Just this week, we begged victims of Fr. Emmerich Vogt to come forward, because he’s being sued for child sex crimes yet still working as a priest.
[KATU]
[SNAP]
Just this week, we drew attention to Fr. Bruce Wellems of Chicago who admits molesting a child yet violates the restrictions put on him by church officials and continues to be around kids.
[SNAP]
And all this is in the US, the nation where the abuse and cover up crisis first grabbed national headlines more than 30 years ago.
When we pretend that papal pronouncements about abusers mean something, we do a disservice to kids. When we applaud words but ignore inaction, we hurt children.
We strongly question the claim by the National Catholic Reporter that Francis “has come under some criticism for not speaking out on the subject more strongly …” Very few want Francis to talk more often or strongly about clergy sex crimes and cover ups. Most want him to DO something to stop clergy sex crimes and cover ups.
No matter how many times Catholic officials talk about child sex crimes and cover ups, we urge every single person who saw, suspected or suffered them to protect kids by calling police, get help by calling therapists, expose wrongdoers by calling law enforcement, get justice by calling attorneys, and be comforted by calling support groups like ours. This is how kids will be safer, adults will recover, criminals will be prosecuted, cover ups will be deterred and the truth will surface.
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