Advocate: Many stories of sexual abuse by priests yet to be told

BUFFALO (NY)
Buffalo News

March 3, 2018

By Dan Herbeck

For the past 22 years, Judith Burns-Quinn has listened to the shocking and heartbreaking stories of people who were sexually abused by priests.

Most of them, she said, are adult men who were molested as young boys and teenagers.

“Every victim I’ve talked to has their own story, but for every one, the experience of being molested by a priest has had a profound impact on their life,” said Burns-Quinn, 74.

Burns-Quinn said she has spoken to about 40 such victims since 2002, when she became Buffalo coordinator for a national organization called Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP.

“Every one I’ve talked to has had trouble with either drugs, alcohol, anger issues, parental issues, divorces, or all those things,” she said. “They have problems with trusting people, especially people in authority. Their lives have been devastated…because a priest was someone they thought they could be trust.”

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