A message from SNAPDFW’s facilitator, Lisa Kendzior
Acknowledge your courage
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It takes courage to acknowledge that we’ve been abused and it is not easy to even admit it to ourselves. Just browsing this website is a big step.Know that you are not alone!
If you’ve been victimized by clergy, please know that you are not alone. You can get better. You can reach out to others who’ve been hurt just like you have.
Together, we can heal one another.
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In a note read on Vatican radio on Saturday, Vatican spokesman/priest Federico Lombardi, said:“The nature of the question is such as to attract the attention of the media, and the way in which the church deals with (the attention of the media) is crucial for her moral credibility.”
Victims of the church hierarchy, however, see the test of Vatican credibility in how it actually chose to respond to victims, and in that regard the pope has clearly failed.
An editorial in National Catholic Reporter yesterday says that the pope needs to come clean, once and for all.
"We now face the largest institutional crisis in centuries, possibly in church history. The Holy Father needs to directly answer questions, in a credible forum, about his role -- as archbishop of Munich (1977-82), as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (1982-2005), and as pope (2005-present) -- in the mismanagement of the clergy sex abuse crisis." -- Editorial, National Catholic Reporter March 27, 2010
Read the NCR editorial "Credibitlity gap: Pope needs to answer questions" in today's NCRonline.
Read the Vatican spin on its admitted crisis in "moral credibility" in today's NYTimes.
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Vatican, NYTimes exchange volleys on Ratzinger's involvement in pedophile transfer; victim concerns marginalized
Once again, the Vatican seems oblivious to victims of Roman Catholic priest predators, opting instead to save face and insulate the pope from the controversy, as evidenced in this latest front page fencing between the Vatican spin doctors and the New York Times. Read both sides on today's NYTimes front page:
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Internal church documents show that Ratzinger was copied on memo that transfered German pedophile priest
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Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the future pope and archbishop in Munich at the time, was copied on a memo that informed him that a priest, whom he had approved sending to therapy in 1980 to overcome pedophilia, would be returned to pastoral work within days of beginning psychiatric treatment. The priest was later convicted of molesting boys in another parish. -- NYTimes Mar 26, 2010
Read the entire story in today's NYTimes.
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SNAP President Barbara Blaine, SNAP Midwest director Peter Isely and 2 others were detained in Rome by police during a news conference in front of the Vatican today. Similar conferences were scheduled for several other cities for today."We've spent more time in the police station than Father Murphy did in his life," said Isely, Milwaukee-based midwest director of SNAP after his release.
Isley was referring to the American priest Lawrence Murphy -- whom the Vatican refused to defrock in spite of his being accused of molesting some 200 deaf boys in Wisconsin. The Vatican has strongly defended its position on the Murphy affair, prompting the SNAP demonstration.
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According to a new New York Times story, a US pedophile priest reportedly abused between 150-200 deaf kids at a school over 24 years, often during confessions. Yet for years, a small Vatican bureaucracy headed by then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (now the Pope) fought three US bishops’ efforts to oust the predator, citing a fear of scandal.
- Read the story in today's NYTimes.
- Read SNAP responses.
- Download the entire NYTimes file on the priest from Bishop Accountability Website.
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SNAP Outreach director Barbara Dorris issued a statement for the survivors' advocacy group today commenting on the resignation of Irish bishop John Magee accused of covering up sexual abuse by priests. "We hope that Magee's resignation will provide some relief and consolation for the thousands of deeply wounded abuse victims and hundreds of thousands of betrayed parishioners in Ireland," said Dorris in a statement issued today. "By itself, however, this resignation doesn't signify any fundamental change in the corrupt church hierarchy or hurtful church practices regarding predator priests, nuns, seminarians, bishops, brothers or other employees."
We hope this move will help those in pain realize that there is hope and that their suffering is validated. At the same time, we hope this move will not in any way diminish the pressure for more substantive, long-term reforms that are needed to protect the vulnerable and heal the wounded in the church. -- Barbara Dorris
Read the Vatican statement about the resignation, and Barbara Dorris' full response.
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We must keep in mind two facts. First, these numbers come from most of the same bishops who concealed and enabled clergy child sex crimes for decades. They are inherently suspect, to say the least.Second, very few child victims are able to disclose the crimes as they happen, so there always has been and will be decades between the actual offense and the reporting of it.
"We’re saddened, but not surprised that church officials still spend twice as much on predators as victims ($11 million vs. $6.5 million) and more than four times as much on their lawyers as on victims ($28 million vs. $6.5 million)." -- David Clohessy
Given these facts, there are two options. We can either be reckless, assuming that clergy sex crimes are somehow magically being reduced, or we can be prudent, assuming that clergy sex crimes are essentially happening at the same rate, or a higher rate, than before.
Caution, not complacency, is the responsible choice.
Read Clohessy's full March 23 press release here.
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Italy Prelate Sees Campaign Against Church Over Abuse
Published: March 22, 2010 - 12:58 p.m. ET -- NYTimes
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - The Catholic Church is being unfairly singled out for criticism of sexual abuse of children by priests and will not tolerate campaigns to discredit it, the powerful head of Italy's bishops said on Monday. ...
SNAP's David Clohessy Responds:
Catholic officials are the culprits here, not the victims. To suggest that hundreds of deeply wounded European men and women are somehow conspiring with unethical journalists hurts the very individuals the Pope says he cares about and who are acting responsibly.
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Read the Vatican story and Clohessy's response.
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Barbara Blaine and Barbara Dorris of SNAP, are in Munich for the day before heading to Vienna and Berlin. They placed several dozen photographs of children abused by priests at the front gate of the office of Archbishop Reinhard Marx, who heads the archdiocese of Munich and Freising.“No institution can effectively police or reform itself, especially not an ancient, rigid, secretive, all-male monarchy like the Catholic hierarchy with its deeply-rooted and long-standing practice of concealing clergy sex crimes,” said Blaine, SNAP’s founder and president, in a press release yesterday.
“So it’s crucial that secular authorities promptly begin thorough investigations into the church’s on-going scandal, so that the truth can be revealed, the wrong-doers disciplined, the victims healed and the vulnerable protected.”
Read the full story in NCR Today.
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Two US women who head the world’s largest & most highly visible support group for clergy sex abuse victims are going to Europe today to offer help to adults who were sexually assaulted by Catholic priests, nuns, seminarians, brothers and bishops.Two US men who were molested as kids by priests are leaving for Europe soon.
All four are leaders of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPnetwork.org). The women are flying to Munich Germany today to start a chapter of their self-help organization in that country and hold a news conference Monday at 2:00 p.m. They will also visit at least two or three countries on the continent.
Read the entire press release on the SNAP National Website.
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The National Survivor Advocates Coalition (NSAC) issued a response Saturday March 20, 2010 to the pope's "pastoral" letter to the people of Ireland saying simply and directly “ read it and weep.”“Simply writing the words ‘criminal activity’ does not mean and should not be confused with the Pope taking responsibility for the cover-up of crimes. “ the coalition said.
In making its comments, NSAC acknowledged the “noble courage” of the survivors that have come forward in Ireland and throughout the world and extended to them its solidarity “most particularly on this difficult day.”
Read the entire NSAC response/press release on their Website.
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"There is a broad and deep layer of corruption in the institution." -- Thomas Doyle, OP in NCR article
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In an article dated March 12, 2010 on the National Catholic Reporter Website, survivor advocate and Dominican canon lawyer Thomas Doyle says of the priest sex abuse scandal sweeping the globe:"The crisis has made it very clear that the system we have had for centuries is incapable of leading the body of Christ to be a church. All it was capable of doing was defending itself."
The article goes on to say:
"Doyle wouldn’t speculate on whether the spreading scandal would bring any substantial change, but he believes that the bishops have engaged in 'denial and blame-shifting' since the earliest days of the scandal and that now 'we’re seeing the unraveling of a Teflon cover that kept this under wraps. The cover is rapidly unraveling now and what is obvious is that there is a broad and deep layer of corruption in the institution.'"
Read the full article by Tom Roberts on the NCR Website.
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