CALIFORNIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
For immediate release: Friday, July 8, 2016
Statement by Tim Lennon of San Francisco, Bay Area Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (415-312-5820, tlennon@snapnetwork.org)
We have just learned that a disgraced archbishop, who resigned amid numerous allegations that he committed and concealed clergy sexual misconduct, will be leading two services at a conference at the Meritage Hotel in the Napa Valley this weekend.
We urge conference organizers to disinvite the controversial prelate and attendees to withdraw from the event unless that happens immediately. It’s especially important that Santa Rosa Bishop Robert Vasa take action, since the conference is in his diocese. http://napa-institute.org/conference/conference-schedule-and-brochure/
Archbishop John Nienstedt, the former head of the St. Paul/Minneapolis archdiocese, is at the Napa Institute for the next few days. Several sources have told us he works there permanently now. He’s accused of sexually exploiting and/or propositioning between five and ten young seminarians. In civil litigation and repeated media exposes (especially by Minnesota Public Radio), he’s been shown to have ignored or concealed child sex crimes by priests. And the archdiocese he ran for years faces pending criminal charges for refusing to report suspected abuse by clerics.
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