Letter to

January 31, 2008

Survivors Network of those Abused By Priests
700 N. Green St., Suite 504, Chicago, Illinois 60622-5474
312-455-1499

His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI PP
Apostolic Palace
Via Del Pellegrino
Citta Del Vaticano 00120
Vatican City State

In Care Of:
Most Reverend Pietro Sambi
Apostolic Pro-Nuncio
3339 Massachusetts Av. N.W.
Washington DC 20005

Dear Holy Father,

As children, each of us was raped or sexually assaulted by a priest or vowed religious under the supervision of the bishops and provincials of the Roman Catholic Church of the United States.

We are members of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), the world’s oldest and largest self help organization for childhood victims of clergy sexual abuse, with over 8,000 survivors organized in over 60 chapters across the United States, Mexico and Canada.

We are writing to request a meeting with you when you visit our country this Spring.

In the years before his death, as the clergy sexual abuse crisis was erupting
again within the church, we were heartened by the words of your predecessor, Pope John Paul II, when he indicated that “there is no room in the church for those who would harm a child.” Yet we were also disappointed that he not once met with us, or apparently any clergy sexual abuse survivor, face to face. That important and necessary encounter between the leader of the Roman Catholic Church and leaders of victims of childhood sexual assault by Catholic clergy, sadly never occurred. It remains, we believe, one of the great unfinished tasks of his papacy.

If child sexual abuse is to end in the church, nothing can substitute for this encounter between leaders of the survivor community and yourself, especially at this time in the history of the church, as the nature and extent of these crimes is beginning to be known publicly, at least in the West. Most importantly, it would signal to all those who would seek to harm children from a position of clerical authority or any bishop or provincial who would cover up these crimes, that the leader of the Roman Catholic Church will never again tolerate sexual violence from within the ranks of the ordained and religious life.

We are hopeful that your visit to the United States will assist in the necessary, yet unfinished, healing that needs to occur. We hope to sit down with you and share with you what happened to us as children, how church officials are responding to our plight, and offer thoughtful proposals as to how we can work directly with you to reach those who have been wounded and to prevent future abuse. It concerns us that many in the US church hierarchy who are reporting to you are the very church officials who continue to treat victims poorly and even now may be leaving children at risk. We are offering to give you a perspective which you will not and cannot get from Cardinals and Bishops.

As an organization of sexual abuse survivors by clergy, as you must know, we have often been critical of how bishops and provincials in the United States have handled abusive clergy and responded to us and our families. Our criticism has been one of concern for the children of the church, is borne of the pain we have endured and it is why we want to voice these concerns directly to you.

We and many millions of Catholics as well as the American public, continue to be worried about the relationship between church and civil authorities in reporting child sexual abuse and assisting in the investigation and criminal prosecutions of abusive clergy. We are also concerned about the large number of victims who still have not received a pastoral and compassionate response from American Church leaders. Many still report that Bishops and Provincials treat them as “enemies” rather than “victims.”

Many of us who are victims of these crimes, as you might well imagine have a turbulent and anguished relationship with the church. Despite this, thousands of us retain a commitment to our Catholic faith. Is that not a powerful witness to the hope we have that the church can and will make the changes necessary so that no child will ever again experience what we have had to endure? But how is that change going to occur if you never take the time to meet with us face to face?

Of this we are sure: no matter what steps you take to address this problem, you will never grasp the depths of these crimes, the horror and affliction they place within the human soul, until this encounter with us takes place.
During your visit to the United States this Spring please take a brief portion of your time to meet with us, the leaders of the survivors’ movement. Join us—the victims of these terrible crimes--in piercing the secrecy that has imprisoned so many for so long. Unite with us in memorializing what happened to us. Take courage from us in our struggle for justice. Listen and consider with us the hard won wisdom of our fellow survivors from around the United States, the combined wisdom, literally, of thousands.

Lastly, we vow to work with you so that we—the current generation of survivors of childhood sexual abuse by clergy--will be the very last generation of survivors.

It is all any of us truly want.

Thank you for your consideration.