CT - Groups challenge new Catholic official

Priest was convicted of killing a nun on his watch

SNAP says Catholic officials hurt police investigation

Even in prison, murderer remains a priest & hasn’t been defrocked

New Hartford archbishop should post names of predators on  website

WHAT

Holding signs and childhood photos at a sidewalk news conference, a clergy sex abuse victim and a concerned Catholic will challenge Hartford’s new Catholic archbishop to

--explain his actions during the investigation of a priest, who murdered a nun,

--use his influence to try and get the priest defrocked, and

--post on the archdiocesan website the names, photos and whereabouts of current and former Hartford area priests, nuns, seminarians and other child molesting clerics.

They will also urge Connecticut Catholics and citizens to report known and suspected clergy sex crimes and cover ups to police and prosecutors, not to church officials.

WHEN

TODAY, Wednesday, Oct. 30, at 11:30 a.m.

WHERE

On the sidewalk outside the Cathedral of St. Joseph, 140 Farmington Avenue (corner of Sigourney) in Hartford, Connecticut

WHO

A child sex abuse victim who belongs to a support group called the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), and two Catholic parishioners who belong to a reform group called Voice of the Faithful (VOTF)

WHY

The new head of the Hartford Catholic archdiocese ran the Toledo diocese for a decade - before, during and after a diocesan priest was convicted of brutally and ritualistically murdering a nun. Clergy sex abuse victims say Archbishop Leonard Blair, the newly-elevated leader of the Hartford archdiocese, impeded a police investigation and should explain his actions in the case.

http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news2007/03_04/2007_04_12_Abbott_MoreOn.htm

http://www.bishop-accountability.org/assign/Robinson_Gerald_J.htm

Initially Bishop Blair’s staff provided police with three pages of  documents about Fr. Gerald Robinson, who had long been a suspect in the 1980 slaying of Sister Margaret Ann Pahl. Believing church officials were withholding records, Toledo police twice executed “no knock” search warrants on Blair’s diocesan offices. They found scores and scores of more documents, some of which implicated Fr. Robinson.

http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news2007/03_04/2007_04_12_Abbott_MoreOn.htm

Blair’s lawyers then went to court to block the release of what was found. Church officials won. To date, those files have never been released.

But in 2006, a jury found Fr. Robinson guilty of murder. He is now serving a 15 year prison sentence.

Fr. Robinson has never been defrocked. Despite being arrested in 2004 and convicted in 2006, he remains a priest today. 

SNAP wants Blair to explain his actions in the case, tell his lawyers to try to unseal the records, and work harder – and enlist  his flock’s help to pressure the Vatican to get Fr. Robinson defrocked.

Roughly 30 US bishops have posted many of the proven, admitted and credibly accused child molesting clerics in their dioceses on their websites.  Blair posted a partial list, largely in response to public pressure. For the safety of kids and the healing of victims, the two groups want him to do so in Hartford too.

Here’s a list of bishops who HAVE posted such lists:

http://www.bishop-accountability.org/AtAGlance/lists.htm

More on the Fr. Robinson case:

http://www.crimelibrary.com/news/original/0406/2701_rev_robinson_trial.html

http://www.snapnetwork.org/legal_courts/stories/oh_robinson_guilty%20_of_murder.htm

http://www.renewamerica.com/columns/abbott/070412

Toledo journalist David Yonke wrote a book about the case: “Sin, Shame & Secrets.”

CONTACT

Gail Howard 203 644 0387, [email protected], Claudia Vercellotti  419 345 9291, [email protected] (from Toledo), David Clohessy 314 566 9790, [email protected], Jayne O’Donnell 860 335 4259, [email protected]