MIAMI (FL)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
Posted by David Clohessy on September 13, 2012
A support group for clergy sex abuse victims is blasting Miami’s Catholic archbishop for keeping a controversial priest on the job despite two child sex abuse and cover up lawsuits against him. And the priest’s own parishioners have started an on-line petition drive to get him ousted.
Leaders of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, are writing Archbishop Thomas Wenski about Fr. Rolando G. Garcia of St. Agatha’s parish in Miami. SNAP is outraged that Wenski is keeping Garcia in the parish, especially because one lawsuit against him has been settled and another is pending.
“It’s supposed to be ‘one strike and you’re out’ when it comes to child molesting Catholic clerics,” said Barbara Dorris, Outreach Director for SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. “Wenski is deliberately breaking official church policy and endangering the safety of young lives.”
Last week, Garcia was sued – for the second time – for allegedly abusing a young boy. These alleged crimes took place over at least a year and a half in the 1980s. The victim, referred to in the suit as John Doe 94, also charges that the Miami archdiocesan officials actively hid an earlier abuse allegation against Fr. Garcia.
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