QUINCY (MA)
SNAP - Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests [Chicago IL]
September 24, 2025
The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) is appalled by Quincy Mayor Thomas Koch’s recent comments on WBZ News Radio1030 dismissing the clergy abuse crisis as “mostly homosexual issues” rather than recognizing the catastrophe for what it is: the widespread and systemic rape and sexual assault of children and vulnerable people facilitated and concealed by Catholic bishops around the world.
The conflation of homosexuality and pedophilia has been repeatedly refuted by medical and scientific experts. Mayor Koch’s comments serve to scapegoat gay men, imply that middle-school and high-school boys are not actually victims of abuse, and completely dismiss every girl or woman who has been assaulted in the Catholic Church.
Perhaps no diocese in the United States has drawn as much global attention for the rampant sexual abuse of children, and its cover-up by church leaders, as Boston. Even so, an AP investigation found that no U.S. diocese had omitted more accused priests from public disclosure than the Archdiocese of Boston.
For Mayor Koch to deny that reality while the children of Quincy go to schools and parishes run by the Archdiocese of Boston is a disservice to his community and an insult to every survivor of clergy sexual abuse in Quincy and beyond. For this, he should apologize.