MD- Catholic librarian should be fired, SNAP responds
For immediate release: Friday, April 04, 2014
Statement by David Clohessy of St. Louis, Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (314 566 9790, [email protected])
A Baltimore teacher has been arrested for sexually abusing one of her current students. We urge Catholic officials to fire and denounce - not just suspend - the librarian who kept silent about these crimes for weeks and discipline two Catholic officials who are calling these crimes "a relationship."
http://wbal.com/article/106462/2/catholic-school-teacher-arrested-for-child-sex-abuse
They are wrong and callous to do so. It's misleading and hurtful to call child sex crimes "a relationship." That implies equality and consent that cannot exist between an adult and a child, especially between a teacher and a student.
Baltimore Archbishop William Lori's spokesman used that insensitive and inaccurate phrase in a radio interview. And school president Fr. Joseph Benicewicz did the same in a letter to parents.
These are well-educated church officials who have considerable experience handing child sex crimes. They know better. But they deliberately choose to use misleading and minimizing language that rubs more salt into the wounds of child sex abuse victims. Shame on them. They should be punished.
Finally, Lori's spokesman claims church officials are "doing everything” they can in this situation. That's not true either. Catholic officials say this often but evidence shows they largely do the bare minimum.
Lori should personally visit the school, urging students, staff and parents to disclose any suspicions or information they may have to law enforcement. He should post the teacher's name, face and work history on his archdiocesan website with the same plea, prodding victims, witnesses, and whistleblowers to contact secular authorities, not church officials.
We are grateful for law enforcement for getting this dangerous teacher away from kids. And we hope this victim's family will help police and prosecutors charge and convict Lynette Trotta and anyone else at Archbishop Curley High School who may have ignored or concealed her crimes.
(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 15,000 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 (314-862-7688 home, 314-503-0003 cell, [email protected])
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 4 comments
I guess this makes it easier to sit in judgment. My son graduated from Curley in 2011. and attended the school as a student in 1969. My wife and I were very involved at the school. We know the administration and the staff well. Whether or not this tirade had any impact on ruining the careers of the school’s president and principal is debatable, but I am sure it did not help.
The fact is, that this was a relationship between a 33 year old female teacher and a 17 year old boy; not a priest and a victim under the age of 15. Father Joe was correct in not referring to the young man as a victim. A 17 year old boy is not a child. I have no way of knowing your thought process at 17, but for me personally at that age, I would have been insulted. And while you may find this next statement abhorrent, having sex with one of my female teachers at that age would not have scarred me for life.
Furthermore, you are basing your article on the assumption that the young man gave the police an accurate portrait of what happened. If you even bothered to look at the charging documents, it is very obvious the facts are slanted to cast a favorable light on the “victim.” This is what charging documents, like grand juries do, they only tell one side of the story. To find out what really happened, you will have to wait until Aug. 9. That is when Mrs. Trotta gets her day in court. By then, this story might change, though it seems your mind is made up.
While I have no inside information on whether the charges muster merit or not, your characterization of Mrs. Trotta is at the least reckless, and at its worst borderline defamatory. She has not yet been convicted in the eyes of the law. And whether you want to accept this premise or not, the law ultimately trumps any thoughts about this case you may have.