Clergy sex victims getting checks; SNAP responds

It’s important to remember that it never should have come to this. Had Catholic officials acted like decent human beings and reported child sex crimes – both known and suspected – to police and prosecutors, thousands of innocent kids would have been spared horrific abuse.

We applaud every single one of these brave men and women who exposed those who committed and concealed heinous crimes. We urge them to get or stay in therapy, self-help groups, or other programs that help victims recover from the on-going pain that stems from childhood victimization.

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Statement by Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, Outreach Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (314 862 7688 home, 314 503 0003 cell, [email protected])

(SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, is the world’s oldest and largest support group for clergy abuse victims. We’ve been around for 23 years and have more than 10,000 members. Despite the word “priest” in our title, we have members who were molested by religious figures of all denominations, including nuns, rabbis, bishops, and Protestant ministers. Our website is SNAPnetwork.org)

Contact - David Clohessy (314-566-9790 cell, [email protected]), Barbara Blaine (312-399-4747, [email protected]), Peter Isely (414-429-7259, [email protected]), Barbara Dorris (314-862-7688 home, 314-503-0003 cell, [email protected])

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Alaska victims of priest sex abuse begin receiving settlement checks

Published: August 19th, 2011

About 200 mostly Yup'ik victims of child sexual abuse by Catholic Church officials in Western Alaska in the 1960s and '70s have begun receiving checks from the $166 million settlement with Northwest Jesuits, reports KYUK in Bethel. Individual amounts will not be made public, attorney Ken Roosa says. A two-person panel chosen by committee will decide how much of the settlement each victim will receive. "For many of [the victims], it's an opportunity to move on, to try to piece their lives back together," Roosa said. "They will have some compensation, [but] not nearly in any sense what their claims were really worth."