TEXAS
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
For immediate release: Tuesday, Feb. 17
Statement by David Clohessy of St. Louis, Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 314 566 9790, SNAPclohessy@aol.com , davidgclohessy@gmail.com )
Statement by Amy Smith, SNAP Dallas Director ( 281 748 4050, watchkeepamy@gmail.com )
Houston’s top Catholic official says that some of his colleagues around the world apparently minimize the problem of predator priests and believe it’s “not a universal problem,” according to an interview he gave to a Catholic news source.
[Crux]
When it comes to sexual abuse, Cardinal Daniel DiNardo said “There is still some lingering sentiment that this is fundamentally maybe an Anglo-Saxon problem, a problem in developed countries. That’s not true. It’s everywhere,” he said.
We find this hard to believe. It’s very hard to imagine that well-educated men would believe that somehow clergy sex crimes and cover ups are somehow restricted to one region, culture or socio-economic class.
In our experience, very few church officials handle clergy sex crimes and cover ups well. Bishops in the developed world, however, have made minimal progress but only because they’ve been forced to act due to civil lawsuits, journalistic investigations, educated laity and well-funded, sophisticated law enforcement agencies. Sadly, these factors are less prevalent in the developing world.
In the developing world, there tend to be closer ties between government and religion and a wider power and education gap between clerics and lay people. These are problematic factors too.
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