Listen to the livestream from Geneva!
For the second time this year Vatican officials are being investigated by another committee at the United Nations. Two events will be carried live on the internet tomorrow, Tuesday May 6th. One includes SNAP leaders from different countries and our attorneys from the Center for Constitutional Rights. The other is actual proceedings from the UN headquarters in Geneva.
SNAP and The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) are attending the proceedings and will report back to survivors, advocates, and supporters via livestream. Tune in to our report-back on Tuesday, May 6, at 8:30 pm CET (2:30 pm EST).
You can follow the global conversation about this historic hearing on Twitter using the hashtag #VaticanAccountability and ask questions before or during the report-back by tweeting to the hashtag or emailing your questions to [email protected]. We will answer as many as possible during the livestream.
The hearings will be streamed live here. From 3 pm-6 pm CET (9 am-12 pm EST) on Tuesday, May 6th, the Vatican will respond to the Committee’s questions. The broadcasts will be in English.
For more information on our efforts to hold the Vatican accountable see the CCR webpage and factsheet, as well our submitted reports to the Committee, detailing how the Vatican has violated the core principles of the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment, which it ratified in 2002.
Please know that we are carrying your courage, compassion and support! Lots of the information we have conveyed came from your stories and efforts to expose the truth. We only hope we are doing you proud! If you want to convey any information, concerns or questions please let us know asap!
Gratefully,
Barbara Blaine
Winter Appeal 2023
To our friends,
2023 has been a long year with many ups and downs for us all. As we close out the year, we at SNAP hope that you are feeling like you are on your way to being healthy, fulfilled, and happy. This past year has brought both successes and challenges. Thanks to the support you have shown in the past, we’ve been able to celebrate the good days and weather the stormy ones. Now, we are once again asking for your support as we work to support survivors new and old as we ‘Move SNAP Forward.’
At SNAP we are proud to have hosted a very well-attended conference in August 2023. This event allowed us to gather friends, survivors, advocates, and allies for a weekend of camaraderie and connection. We were so happy to be able to welcome many first-time attendees to gather in person and are already looking forward to the next conference.
To strengthen our movement for justice, healing, and prevention, SNAP will be expanding our peer support and providing more volunteer opportunities in the coming year. Through this great work, we are ensuring survivor voices are represented as we work for significant change that will benefit children and survivors.
Right now, survivors worldwide are getting the help they need from SNAP, and more and more reach out to us daily, but we need your help to keep those programs going and get our volunteers the training they need to thrive.
Your tax-deductible gift to SNAP can help offset the cost of our important mission. If you are not in a position to contribute, you can still support us by sharing this letter with those who can. As we continue to fight for survivors across the globe, your donation or sharing the great work SNAP does will help us continue our work to protect the vulnerable, heal the wounded, and prevent abuse.
Your donation ensures SNAP will be there for those who need us more than ever!
Warmly,
Michael W. McDonnell, C.P.S.
Interim Executive Director
Showing 3 comments
It is a little after 3pm, here in California on May 6, 2014. I feel fortunate that after about half an hour this a.m., I was able to bring up the livestream on my computer and got to see the last two and half hours of the second day of reporting by the vatican, via father tomasi to the UN Committee on Torture. That being said, I was discourged to see and hear the same level of evasion and deception that I have have heard and seen expressed by catholic heirarchy, this whole year thus far. For example when a committee member asked if an accused priest is monitored by the church, while a case against him is going through the courts, F. Tomasi didn’t really reply definitively yes or no; rather, he said that a priest was suspended as soon as a credible allegation was brought against him. The was the church being evasive, again. Being suspended is not the same thing as being monitored.
I think the most shocking phenomenon was to hear the priest silvano tomasi state that he thinks “other institutions should copy the (catholic) church’s example of ‘best practices’ on this matter”. And, when he said that, I immediately thought to myself: Is he insane?!
How dare he suggest that other institutions do as the catholic church has done regarding this ongoing, global scourge and scandal of sexual abuse torture perpetrated on innocent children and vulnerable adults by CATHOLIC priests, laity, curia and employees!!! In my opinion, he, and the other catholic heirarchy (including the pope), are delusional.
I am very grateful to the CCR and SNAP that had the opportunity and did, read (with great sadness) the Supplemental Report that CCR submitted on behalf of SNAP to the UN Committee on Torture in April. I already knew that the “reach” of this horrible scourge was worldwide, but reading of specific incidences really enforces the horror I feel whenever I hear a catholic priest or pope be solicitous about this issue, rather than forcefully and credibly standing up, and publicly committing to STOPPING these crimes and the cover-up of them, from continuing to happen.
I truly hope that the committee members and all who attend this HISTORIC MEETING OF THE UN COMMITTEE ON TORTURE, WITH THE CATHOLIC REPRESENTATIVE (ARCHBISHOP SILVANO TOMAS) FOR THE POPE AND THE GLOBAL CATHOLIC CHURCH, have read the Supplemental Report and that the catholic church will be called to account, apologize and, most importantly, to pledge the immediate STOPPAGE of such heinous crimes and their cover up, around the world!
I think, if I actually ever saw or met, either of Fr. Federico Lombardi, or Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, I would very much want to ask them why they (none of them, in fact, the new pope included) ever seem to have read or referred to the words of Christ in the Bible, in Matthew 18:6, Mark 9:42 and Luke 17:2? I wonder, do they all really believe that these sins of torture against children and vulnerable adults, are not grievous? Do they really think that these perpetrators and enablers should all just be forgiven? Do they not know, that certain heinous crimes are unforgiveable? As in: Hitler deserved to be put to death, and most likely would have been had he not committed suicide.
These crimes of torture that many catholic priests have committed, are not forgiveable. Nor is the calculated suppression of facts, and enabling of pedophile priests to continue torturing innocents, by the catholic clergy, catholic hierarchy, catholic laity, catholic curia, catholic employees and catholic pope. Being catholiics, so-called religious men and women, all; I really would like to hear these two priests’ response to my question of why they do not practice and teach the words of Christ, found in those specifically referenced Bible books, chapters and verses. Even if all the powers that we can bring to bear, are not able to make an end to these horrible, horrible criminal actions, all, this year, I would at least like them to know that they are NOT FORGIVEN and that we will carry on the battle until the rest of the world truly knows all about this, and make them aware that we all know how heinous these particular criminals, are.