OHIO
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
For immediate release: Thursday, June 4
For more information: David Clohessy of St. Louis, Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 314 566 9790, davidgclohessy@gmail.com ), Barbara Dorris ( 314-503-0003 cell, bdorris@SNAPnetwork.org ), Barbara Blaine ( 312-399-4747, bblaine@snapnetwork.org )
Church staff help sex offender
Victims denounce their letters
Bishop should reprimand pastor, group says
SNAP: “He should visit parish & educate his flock”
At least ten staff, volunteers or members of a Cleveland Catholic church wrote a judge seeking a shorter prison term for a convicted child sex offender who brandished a gun at a police officer. A support group for clergy sex abuse victims is urging Cleveland’s top Catholic official to visit the parish and discipline the pastor.
The controversy stems from a March guilty plea on child sex charges by Steve Bittel, an active parishioner at St. Barnabas church in Northfield. An investigation revealed that most of the 67 videos found on Bittel’s computer featured children between 3 and 16 years old. Of the 67 files found, one of the files downloaded to Bittel’s IP address is described in court records as a five-minute video of a “slightly pubescent girl” undressing and performing sex acts on herself, according to Stow Municipal Court records.
More than 25 of Bittel’s relatives, friends and fellow Catholics wrote to Judge Richard Reinbold urging leniency for him before his sentencing. Among them were ten individuals with ties to St. Barnabas parish, including its pastor.
Leaders of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, are asking Bishop Richard Lennon to go to the church this weekend, reprimand the pastor and “tell your flock that it’s wrong, reckless and hurtful to help a predator get back out on the streets sooner.”
In a letter to Lennon, SNAP says he has “a duty to put the safety of innocent kids above the wishes of misguided adults and to make sure that church members and staff do so too.”
“School and church officials should always put the safety of the innocent above the preferences of their friends. Helping sex offenders get shorter sentences is hurtful and irresponsible,” said Judy Jones of SNAP.
“When officials write letters urging lighter punishments for sex offenders, they are being selfish and short-sighted and they rub even more salt into the already deep and usually still fresh wounds of victims and their loved ones,” said Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, SNAP’s outreach director. “And it’s not enough for Lennon or another church official to say ‘We’re sorry.’ The only way to prevent these misdeeds in the future is for Lennon to punish the pastor.”
Those writing to the judge on Bittel’s behalf include St. Barnabas pastor Fr. Ralph Wiatrowski and others associated with the parish: James Vinson, John Marion, Nancy Zajac, Toni Zobel, Luella Merecki, Bob and Annette Fischer, and Thomas and Kathleen Raffay.
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