GA- Atlanta’s Archbishop is contender for promotion

For immediate release: Thursday, June 5, 2014

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

Atlanta’s Archbishop Wilton Gregory is being considered for the next archbishop of Chicago, replacing Cardinal George. We hope he isn’t chosen. 

http://stlouis.cbslocal.com/2014/06/03/two-archbishops-with-local-ties-in-running-for-chicago-cardinals-successor/

Gregory has worked in Illinois before and has a less than stellar history with child sexual abuse cases. Consider these five examples;

-- In 2004, just two years after the Dallas bishops’ meeting, he was found in contempt of court for withholding evidence in a child sex abuse trialhttp://www.bishop-accountability.org/news2004_01_06/2004_05_02_BellevilleNewsDemocrat_BellevilleDiocese.htm

--Members of the bishops’ own hand-picked abuse panel said he was guilty of "backsliding" on many of the child safety measures in the 2002 Dallas Charter for the protection of Children and Young People. Board members also claim that they were intentionally manipulated by Gregory and other bishops. http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news2004_01_06/2004_05_11_Feuerherd_ReviewBoard.htm 

--Gregory was the face of the 2002 Dallas Charter, a charter that has been proven to be completely ineffective at protecting children. In fact, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia was found to be compliant in 2010, just months before the grand jury found 37 perpetrators in ministry. http://www.usccb.org/ocyp/annual-report-2010.pdf

--He was accused of shielding and hiding a priest who had been accused of abuse and then refused a court order to turn over the secret records of that predator priest. The predator abused at least 5 kids, impregnating one of them. http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news2008/07_08/2008_08_05_Pawlaczyk_JuryWill.htm

--In court testimony, Gregory claimed that as bishop of Belleville, he was "kept in the dark" about sex abuse happening under his watch.http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news2008/07_08/2008_08_26_Pawlaczyk_ArchbishopGregory.htm

Chicago’s next archbishop should not be more of the same. Chicago needs an archbishop who will take a strong stand against child sexual abuse against both predators and those who cover-up and enable the crimes. Gregory isn't that man. 

(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 25 years and have more than 18,000 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, [email protected]), Barbara Blaine (312-399-4747, [email protected])