PENNSYLVANIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
For immediate release: Wednesday, May 7, 2014
Statement by David Clohessy of St. Louis, Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 314 566 9790, SNAPclohessy@aol.com )
We admire and appreciate the courage of North Catholic alums who are reporting having been sexually assaulted as children by four Catholic clerics. Their bravery is to be commended. Because they spoke up, three names of predators have now been exposed.
While we are glad Pittsburgh Catholic officials did outreach to alums, diocese staff should immediately:
– disclose the name and whereabouts of the fourth accused cleric, and
– post on their website the names of dozens of proven, admitted and credibly accused child molesting clerics – especially those who are still living and may be hurting other kids right now.
It’s easy to disclose allegations against deceased child molesting clerics. It’s much harder-and more important-to disclose who and where living child molesting clerics are. Pittsburgh’s bishop should do this immediately, and post this information on his website, as 30 of his colleagues have done.
One of the accused from North Catholic allegedly now lives in Australia. He almost certainly lives or works among unsuspecting and vulnerable families (because child molesting clerics are rarely jailed or kept away from kids). We urge Pittsburgh Catholic officials to use every means possible to warn those parents about this cleric. The first step in this process is simply to disclose his name.
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