FL--Orlando Catholic official faces criminal charges

For immediate release: Tuesday, March 14, 2016

Statement by Barbara Blaine of Chicago, national president member of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (312-399-4747)

We are grateful that three Catholic officials who enabled a serial predator to assault 90 kids are being criminally charged. Those who commit clergy sex crimes are sometimes charged. But those who conceal those crimes are rarely charged.

Two of them are in Orlando FL:

DAVERSA:  Pastor St Patrick, Mount Dora, Diocese Orlando 
 
GILES: Currently, he serves, with four other friars, at the San Pedro Center, a Spiritual Development Center, Diocese of Orlando

We hope these charges will prompt more victims, witnesses and whistleblowers to come forward, call police, expose wrongdoers, protect kids and start healing. Now is no time for complacency. These complicit church officials will no doubt get top notch lawyers and try desperately to exploit any and every legal loophole to evade conviction. So it’s crucial that others with suspicions about or knowledge of wrongdoing by Franciscans step forward.

We also hope these charges will bring sorely-needed attention to religious orders. These Catholic groups are often even more reckless, callous and deceitful in clergy sex abuse cases than bishops are.

We strongly suspect that many more Franciscans knew of and ignored or hid Br. Baker’s crimes. We hope that some of them can be charged too.

(SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, is the world’s oldest and largest support group for clergy abuse victims. SNAP was founded in 1988 and has more than 20,000 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 Dorris (314-503-0003 cell, [email protected]), Barbara Blaine (312-399-4747[email protected])


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