Media Statements

(For Immediate Release March 15, 2022) 

A priest from the Diocese of Lafayette-in-Indiana has been suspended from ministry following allegations of “inappropriate contact” with a minor. We are grateful to the victim who came forward and made a report and we now call on church officials to be more transparent regarding the accusations against this priest and the steps they are taking to find and support other potential victims.

Fr. James De Oreo has been suspended after church officials from Lafayette-in-Indiana were made aware of allegations of inappropriate conduct with a minor that violates the Essential Norms and the Diocesan Code of Conduct for Clergy. Fr. De Oreo became ordained as a priest in 2018 and worked for St. Alphonsus Liguori Catholic Church in Zionsville before moving to Our Lady of Mount Carmel which has a grade school of approximately 600 students. We call on church officials to use pulpit announcements, parish websites, and other diocesan outreach tools to ensure parents and parishioners at each of these locations are informed of the allegations against Fr. De Oreo. Additionally, it is incumbent upon the Diocese of Lafayette to fully disclose the work history of Fr. De Oreo up to now and including his work as a seminarian. 

A Wichita Catholic priest who was accused of the sexual exploitation of a child will return to public ministry after the District Attorney said he could not file charges. SNAP is calling out the Diocese of Wichita for putting this cleric back into a position where he may sexually exploit another child.

A former Franciscan friar, David Morrier, received five years’ probation and to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life on sex crimes that took place when he was at the Franciscan University of Steubenville.

According to reports, Morrier was a Franciscan friar assigned to the university back in 2010. He is accused of committing sex crimes against the young woman between 2010 and 2013. The acts were done in the name of religion and took place in a confessional, in a room in the Finnegan Fieldhouse, chapels, and Morrier's office, and included acts termed exorcism under church law.

We stand in solidarity and loudly applaud the brave woman who confronted her abuser, face to face, in the court of law and powerfully delivered a victim’s impact statement directly to her abuser. "I've lost the last 12 years of my life to him, the third-order regular Franciscans and Franciscan university,” the victim said in court Friday. While we would rather see a more punitive sentence for these crimes, we are grateful that this predator will be known for life as a sex offender and follow every rule and regulation under those terms beginning today.

Bishop Raymond Chappetto, 76, whose resignation was accepted by the Vatican on March 7, 2022, is reportedly now the subject of an investigation under the procedures — known in Latin as Vos Estis Lux Mundi (You are the Light of the World) — that address how the Catholic Church will handle claims against bishops and other high-ranking officials accused of abuse or cover-up. The rules direct archbishops to lead the investigation of an accused bishop in his jurisdiction. However, in this case, it appears that the investigation is being overseen by another New York diocese, rather than Cardinal Timothy Dolan of the Archdiocese of New York.

Bishop Chappetto is said to have failed to pass on to the Brooklyn diocesan review board and diocesan officials a memo about a priest who had been accused of misconduct. According to the media outlet The Pillar, the investigation has also raised questions among some in Brooklyn about the decision of newly-installed Bishop Robert Brennan to leave Bishop Chappetto in place as vicar general for more than four months after the complaints to the Vatican about Bishop Chappetto’s conduct were disclosed.

For Immediate Release March 10, 2022

Fr. David Huneck, who was charged in October of 2021 by the Whitley County Prosecutors Office with child seduction, sexual battery, contributing to the delinquency of a minor, and furnishing alcohol to a minor, has reached a plea deal in his case.

We first want to applaud and acknowledge the victims in this case. Thanks to their willingness to come forward and provide statements during the investigation, a dangerous man in a position of authority has been taken off the streets. At the same time, we cannot help but feel that charges of this magnitude deserved a much stronger sentence.

According to the plea deal, Fr. Huneck will spend only 180 days in home detention, followed by two years of probation, and 80 hours of community service. The six original charges, including two felonies, were all dropped, and instead Fr. Huneck pleaded guilty to two charges of physical battery. While we would have hoped the court would send a stronger message to those who would groom and abuse parishioners, including children, we are at least glad that the victims, in this case, do not have to go through a lengthy trial.

For immediate release: March 9, 2022

A Catholic priest who spent time in the Diocese of Fargo and was accused of abuse while working there is still on the job in his home diocese in Nigeria. Now, we are calling on Church officials in Fargo, Minnesota, Boston, and the Military Services to use every resource at their disposal to prevent this dangerous cleric from working around children.

Fr. Luke U. Odor not only worked in the Fargo Diocese, he was also assigned to multiple locations in Minnesota in the 1990s, including the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and the Diocese of Crookston. He later worked under the auspices of the Archdiocese of Boston and the Archdiocese for Military Services before his faculties were suspended in 2012 while “personal conduct matters” were investigated.

Despite that suspension and Fr. Odor being named as an abuser by Fargo, St. Paul, Minneapolis, and Crookston, the priest appears to still be working as a clergyman. He is listed as the Episcopal Vicar of the St. Anthony’s Vicariate in the Diocese of Aba, Nigeria.

To us, this looks like a clear case of child sexual abuse being committed here in the U.S. and the perpetrator quietly being sent back to his home country where he could potentially groom and even harm other innocents. As best as we can tell, no public notice was made by Catholic officials at any of the locations Fr. Odor worked in the U.S. when the cleric was sent back to Nigeria. We do not see the transparency promised in the Dallas Charter in this case: Fr. Odor’s situation and the details of the accusations against him are almost entirely opaque. What is crystal clear, however, is that a man who had the allegations of child sexual abuse against him “substantiated” by the Diocese of Fargo is now in an even higher position in his home diocese.

The recently jailed Bishop Gustavo Zanchetta, sentenced to 4 ½ years for abusing two seminarians should be immediately removed from the clerical state. We would not want to see a quiet laicization as we have seen in Italy. To us, it would speak volumes if Pope Francis would put the needs of victims before reputation and do the next right thing.

We urge Pope Francis to begin the canonical process of formally removing Zanchetta from the clerical state since he is now convicted under civil law. To us, witnessing another alarming pattern of delay of removing a prelate is a slap in the face to survivors and empties the words of accountability and transparency.

CONTACT: Michael McDonnell, SNAP Communications Manager ([email protected], 267) 261-0578 ), Melanie Sakoda, SNAP Survivor Support Coordinator ([email protected], 925-708-6175), Zach Hiner, SNAP Executive Director ([email protected], 517-974-9009)

(SNAP, the Survivors Network, has been providing support for victims of sexual abuse in institutional settings for 30 years. We have more than 25,000 survivors and supporters in our network. Our website is www.SNAPnetwork.org) 

An Argentinian Bishop who has been a key ally of Pope Francis was sentenced today to 4 ½ years in prison for sexually abusing two former seminarians. We are grateful for this sentence and hope that it encourages other survivors, both in Argentina and throughout Latin America, to come forward and start their own healing journeys.

This news is a blow to Pope Francis who had steadfastly defended Bishop Gustavo Zanchetta and advocated for his innocence. The Pope even went so far as to allow Zanchetta to keep working in the Vatican despite being “suspended” from ministry. To us, this is another example of how hierarchs will choose to protect each other and their institution first and foremost and will do so at the expense of the vulnerable.

Fortunately, the secular justice system has once again repudiated the good-ole-boy system in the church and decided that the testimony of the former seminarians were more important than the flowery words of a close friend and colleague. We are grateful that justice has prevailed in this case and hope that this spurs more survivors forward and will encourage other jurisdictions around the world to look more deeply at how the Roman Catholic Church operates within their borders.

The fact is that children and the vulnerable are best protected when abusers are jailed and when enablers are held accountable. We hope that the reckoning in the Argentine church continues to root out bad actors and ensure that sexual abuse is prevented and punished.

CONTACT: Michael McDonnell, SNAP Communications Manager ([email protected], 267) 261-0578 ), Melanie Sakoda, SNAP Survivor Support Coordinator ([email protected], 925-708-6175), Zach Hiner, SNAP Executive Director ([email protected], 517-974-9009)

(SNAP, the Survivors Network, has been providing support for victims of sexual abuse in institutional settings for 30 years. We have more than 25,000 survivors and supporters in our network. Our website is www.SNAPnetwork.org) 

(For Immediate Release March 3, 2022) 

Fr. Andrew Kawecki was recently sentenced to 2 1/2 to 5 years in state prison for repeatedly assaulting an 11-year-old altar boy starting in 2004 and continuing until the boy was 14. Fr. Kawecki was charged by the Pennsylvania Office of the Attorney General in August of 2020 after a victim reported to investigators that the priest forced sexual encounters with him starting when he was only 11 years old. The assaults continued for three years in the back room of St. Cyril and Methodius Church in Fairchance where Fr. Kawecki prepared for services before mass.

We echo the statement made by Attorney General Josh Shapiro, “The bravery of this survivor helped us hold Andrew Kawecki accountable, and he will now go to prison for his unthinkable crimes. My office will continue to seek justice and accountability for those who use their position of power and trust to prey on their communities.”

To us, this conviction demonstrates that secular investigations must occur in every state with the same tenacity and commitment as shown by the Attorney General's Office in Pennsylvania. The AG's tip line for reports of abusive clergy has yielded over 2,000 calls since the bombshell grand jury report was released in August 2018. We strongly believe that more will be revealed in states like Pennsylvania that have remained steadfast in holding abusers, and those who have enabled them, accountable.

The judge in the case of Fr. Kawecki sent a message to other perpetrators and those contemplating similar heinous crimes against children with this sentence. We applaud the courage of every survivor, witness, and whistleblower who helped police and prosecutors see to it that Fr. Kawecki was convicted, sentenced, and sent to prison, although we wish it could have been for a longer period of time.

Sadly, Fr. Kawecki’s victim received a much longer sentence, a life sentence. Victims are the ones who truly need both sympathy and care. We understand the pain and confusion survivors experience, and we encourage them to seek help from law enforcement, family, friends, and organizations such as ours. Through our work, helping victims, protecting the vulnerable, and seeking truth and justice, we hope to help religious institutions find true "zero tolerance" for abusive clergy.

CONTACT: Michael McDonnell, Communication Manager (267-261-0578, [email protected]), Zach Hiner, SNAP Executive Director (517-974-9009, [email protected]), Shaun Dougherty, SNAP Board President (814-341-8386, [email protected])

(SNAP, the Survivors Network, has been providing support for victims of sexual abuse in institutional settings for 30 years. We have more than 25,000 survivors and supporters in our network. Our website is SNAPnetwork.org)

For immediate release: March 3, 2022

A new lawsuit alleging clergy abuse and cover-up in the Archdiocese of Boston during the 1980s has been filed in Massachusetts. We applaud this brave victim for coming forward and hope that his example will spur others who may have been hurt to come forward and start on their own healing journey.

According to the complaint, Gerry Nee was abused over the course of six years while he was a student at St. Joseph School in Holbrook. He was harmed at the hands of two different men, Rev. Robert Fichtner and Rev. Anthony Rebeiro. As with so many other stories of abuse within the Catholic Church, many of the assaults took place in confessionals and rectories, places where victims are easily isolated by the perpetrator. Our hearts break for the trauma that Gerry had to go through, but we hope that this new lawsuit will not only help him heal but will also bring other still-wounded victims forward.

 According to BishopAccountability, there are at least 300 abusers in the Archdiocese of Boston. This is an extraordinary number and, sadly, one that we expect will continue to grow. Survivors of sexual abuse often go through a long lag time before reporting, a trend that is known academically as “delayed disclosure.” The fact is, in the United States the average at which a victim of abuse comes forward is 52, which means that we should expect to hear more stories like Gerry’s as time presses on.

Catholic officials should pound the pavement, using websites, parish bulletins, and the pulpit, to ensure that parents and parishioners at each and every location where Fr. Fichtner and Fr. Rebeiro worked are informed of this new lawsuit. Church leaders should implore still-silent victims to come forward to local law enforcement, trusted therapists, family, or friends. This is the bare minimum that we expect from Catholic officials when new cases of abuse are discovered, and Church leaders in Boston should by now understand the importance of public transparency.

We once again applaud Gerry Nee and his example. Our movement is pushed forward by the strength of victims going public and we are grateful to Gerry for his courageous example.

CONTACT: Michael McDonnell, SNAP Communications Manager ([email protected], 267-261-0578 ), Melanie Sakoda, SNAP Survivor Support Coordinator ([email protected], 925-708-6175), Zach Hiner, SNAP Executive Director ([email protected], 517-974-9009)

(SNAP, the Survivors Network, has been providing support for victims of sexual abuse in institutional settings for more than 30 years. We have more than 25,000 survivors and supporters in our network. Our website is SNAPnetwork.org)