PENNSYLVANIA
PhillyVoice
NY BRIAN HICKEY
PhillyVoice Staff
The meeting is off.
On Tuesday morning, PhillyVoice reported that John-Michael Delaney – an outspoken clergy-sex abuse victim – would meet with Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput after years of not taking the archdiocese up on its offer.
Well, Delaney said that by lunchtime the same day, he’d gotten a message from archdiocesan officials asking him to return their call. After leaving six messages, he said he finally got in touch with someone.
Their reason for the call: To tell him the meeting was canceled because they now felt as if it was a “media ambush,” according to Delaney.
It was payback “because I went public,” he maintained, referring to comments in the story from archdiocese officials saying it’s a matter of practice for these sessions to go unreported.
The archdiocese, however, told PhillyVoice on Thursday afternoon that “the Archbishop has not reversed course on any commitments. If a victim has been promised a meeting, it will take place in due time and provided all parameters are respected,” according to spokesman Ken Gavin.
“Now, I’m pissed,” Delaney told PhillyVoice on Thursday morning. “I’m feeling victimized again. For years, I couldn’t do it. I was afraid of being in a room with a priest, and now they’re saying he won’t meet until there’s no legislation pending in Harrisburg. I don’t regret anything, but I kind of knew it was coming (after the article); I couldn’t wait to hear their excuse.”
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