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Admitted Predator Priest Is in St. Louis

SNAP
August 1, 2013

http://www.snapnetwork.org/mo_admitted_predator_priest_is_in_st_louis

[BishopAccountability.org - assignments]

[Los Angeles Times]

[Fr. Ruben Martinez]

For immediate release: Thursday, Aug. 1

For more information: David Clohessy 314-566-9790 cell, SNAPclohessy@aol.com

Admitted predator priest is in St. Louis

He estimates he abused “more than 100” kids

New Catholic records shows he’s been here since 2006

SNAP: When will Archbishop Carlson ‘come clean’ about pedophiles?”

Group notes that documents were released only because victims insisted

A child molesting Catholic cleric from California who admitted abusing 100 kids now lives in St. Louis, according to newly released church records. The disclosure comes because victims insisted that the documents be made public when they settled their abuse and cover up lawsuits.

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The priest is Fr. Ruben D. Martinez who reportedly lives at the Vianney Renewal Center in Dittmer, according to a 2005 letter from then-Archbishop Raymond Burke that was posted yesterday on the LA Times website.

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According to the LA Daily News, the files – which were made public yesterday by a lawyer for victims - include more than 500 pages about Martinez. The LA archdiocese, the newspaper says, “settled eight lawsuits accusing him of molesting boys from 1970-82” at three southern California parishes.

“Over the years, hundreds of dangerous proven, admitted and credibly accused Catholic priests, brothers, nuns, seminarians and bishops have been secretly sent to church facilities in St. Louis,” said Barb Dorris. “Some have no doubt been carefully watched, but we suspect most haven’t been and still aren’t being carefully watched even now.”

There are several such facilities, SNAP says, in the metro area, including ones in Jefferson and St. Clair counties and St. Louis city and county.

Regardless of whether the offenders are monitored or not, at a “bare minimum” Dorris says, “St. Louis Catholic officials, starting with Archbishop Robert Carlson and going far down the ladder, have a duty to at least tell citizens and Catholics who and where these child predators are. But Catholic employees, from custodians to Cardinals, have a moral and civic obligation to warn parents about these predators who are or could be threats to children.”

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Before being sent to St. Louis, Fr. Martinez also spent time in a New Mexico church center for abusive priests.

Ordained in 1968, Fr. Martinez belongs to a religious order called the Oblates of Mary Immaculate.

One notorious pedophile priest from Kansas was sent to the St. Louis area. He is Fr. Robert Larson. The Wichita Eagle and the Boston Globe have reported that five men who were abused as kids by Larson later committed suicide.

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