OAKLAND (CA)
The Catholic Voice
March 1, 2019
By Michele Jurich
Five representatives of SNAP — Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests — stood on the Harrison Street sidewalk, with the Cathedral of Christ the Light behind them, on Feb. 22 to present their response to the Diocese of Oakland’s release earlier that week of the names of 20 diocesan priests and 25 religious deacons and priests and priests from other dioceses who served here who, the diocese said, have been credibly accused of sexual abuse of a minor.
“It’s not 45; it’s 132,” said Dan McNevin, representative for SNAP, in introducing the list compiled by SNAP.
“The diocese put out a list of 45 names. It was surprising to us, and disappointing. What surprised us was that there were 13 new names to us, five of those names are brand new to the world. They were priests who served in Oakland and never been revealed.
“That troubles us because survivors need to know that the abuse they went through has been noticed,” McNevin said. “In the case of those five, they were kept hidden from view, which means those survivors didn’t have that advantage.”
Those priests, he said, were “under the cover of darkness” and could have abused others.
“We want priests who have been credibly accused to be stripped of their ministry,” said McNevin, who is a survivor of clergy sex abuse in Fremont.
SNAP leaders read a litany of priests’ names, many from religious orders, who remain in active ministry. They also named two diocesan priests; the diocese does not list them among the credibly accused. The SNAP list included lay teachers at Catholic high schools in the diocese.
SNAP’s list was held aloft at the press conference by Joey Piscitelli, who was awarded $600,000 by a civil court jury in Contra Costa County in 2006 for sexual abuse while he was a student at Salesian High School in Richmond, three decades earlier.
Piscitelli noted the sources on SNAP’s list include the bishopsaccountability.org website, a list provided at the press conference by Minneapolis attorney Jeff Anderson last October, newspaper articles and the Official Catholic Directory.
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