Clergy sex victims leaflet about priest

• Clergy sex victims leaflet about priest 
•  He was arrested on Monday on child sex charges 
•  SNAP urges university & church officials to disclose other predators 
•  And in a rare move, group praises a cleric for “standing up” to his bosses

WHAT

Handing fliers to passers-by, clergy sex abuse victims will urge

---Catholic officials in three states to “reach out” to others who may have “seen suspected or suffered” crimes by a just-arrested Chicago priest,

---Loyola University staff and students to spread the word about him, and

---Jesuit authorities to disclose which other child molesting clerics have been at a Loyola.

They will also

--publicly praise, for the first time, a Jesuit priest who (according to a detailed, two page email) “stood up to” his church supervisors and refused to “cover for” a high-profile, now-imprisoned serial child predator priest, and

-- urge anyone who saw, suspected or suffered crimes or misdeeds by Jesuits to call police and get help.

WHERE:

Outside Loyola University, on Sheridan Road, in front of foot entrance to campus, across from L station

WHEN:

Wednesday, Nov. 23 at 11:30 am

WHO:

Three or four adults who were molested as kids and who belong to a self help group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, including a Chicago woman who is the organization’s founder

WHY:

Yesterday, a Jesuit priest who lives at Loyola University was arrested and charged with sexually assaulting a boy in Colorado ten years ago. He’s Rev. Richard James Kurtz, a Jesuit, who lives at Loyola University. Kurtz is also a former University of Detroit Jesuit High School.

Kurtz’s facebook page says that from October 2008 to October 2011 he worked at the Columbiere Retreat Center in Clarkston, Michigan.https://www.facebook.com/people/Richard-James-Kurtz/1233716014

At least two other abusive Jesuits have lived or worked at Loyola in recent years.

SNAP has also found, in court records, a startlingly frank, single-spaced, two-page email from a Jesuit priest to his church supervisors about Fr. Donald McGuire. McGuire is perhaps America’s most high profile child molesting cleric behind bars. The priest, Fr. Paul Mueller, describes his dealings with police who came to a Chicago Jesuit facility to talk with McGuire. “I am uncomfortable, at the level of conscience, with being or seeming to be a shield between Don & inquiries of legitimate law enforcement officials,” Mueller wrote. “I have the uncomfortable feeling that by calling (my supervisor) in the presence of a police officer, I indirectly abetted Don in avoiding contact with a legitimate police investigation. I feel as though I helped an accused priest hide from the law. I want no part in helping to hide someone from the law.”

SNAP will praise Mueller for his honesty. Mueller is believed to be working now in Rome (+39-06-69863-243, [email protected])

In 2009, a former Loyola University and Loyola academy staffer, Fr. Larry Reuter, was outed as a credibly accused abusive cleric, allegedly having had a sexual relationship with a teenaged student. Even though the offense was years ago and a settlement was paid, Jesuit officials kept it hidden for years. According to the Chicago Tribune, Reuter worked at Loyola University Chicago from 1990 until 2002 and Loyola University Medical Center from 2002 and led services at Ascension Catholic Church in Oak Park.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/education/ct-met-loyola-academy-president-20100503,0,7266505.story

That same year, a lawsuit was filed alleging that another Jesuit, who also accused of sexually assaulting a 20 years old college student. He’s Fr. Daniel O’Connell, and who worked at Loyola University Chicago for almost two decades.  http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/30/nyregion/30jesuit.html

In both cases, church and school officials kept the allegations quiet for years. SNAP believes that such delays give predators ample time to destroy evidence, fabricate alibis, intimidate witnesses, threaten victims, hurt others, flee the country and violate church pledges of openness in sex abuse cases.

For the sake of public safety, SNAP  wants the current whereabouts of all proven, admitted and credibly accused Jesuits to be disclosed and wants Jesuits to force them into a treatment facility. SNAP also wants Jesuits to aggressively reach out to anyone else who may have seen, suspected or suffered their sexual misconduct and urge them to call police, get help, protect others and start healing.

CONTACT:

Barbara Blaine, SNAP President, 312 399 4747, [email protected]

Barbara Dorris, SNAP Outreach Director, 314 503 0003, S[email protected]