Media Statements

Seven-time Olympic medal winner Simone Biles, alongside fellow gymnasts McKayla Maroney, Aly Raisman, and Maggie Nichols, shared heart-wrenching testimony in a Senate Judiciary Committee in Washington D.C.yesterday. We applaud these young women for having the courage to be public about their stories of abuse and we believe that more crimes will be prevented in the future thanks to their witness and bravery.

In a powerful tone, Simone Biles told the panel, “I don’t want another young gymnast, Olympic athlete, or any individual to experience the horror that I and hundreds of others have endured, before during, and continuing to this day in the wake of the Larry Nassar abuse.” Biles continued, fighting back tears as she said, “to be clear, I blame Larry Nassar, and I also blame an entire system that enabled and perpetrated his abuse.” Her former teammate, McKayla Maroney, spoke in anger as she described her 2015 interview with the FBI saying, “After telling my entire story of abuse to the FBI in the summer of 2015, not only did the FBI not report my abuse, but when they eventually documented my report 17 months later, they made entirely false claims about what I said.

Wyandotte County prosecutors dismissed the charges in a criminal case against an Archdiocese of Kansas City Kansas priest, Fr. Scott Kallal. The cleric was facing two felonies for sexually abusing a child in 2015. While we respect the decision made by the DA's office, our thoughts are with this courageous young survivor and we are concerned about the message this may send to other potential victims who are considering reporting to law enforcement.

In July of 2017 Fr. Kallal was suspended from public ministry after the Archdiocese received allegations from two different sources that he had engaged in "boundary violations." A man stated publicly that, in the summer of 2015, the priest had tickled his 11-year-old daughter and touched her breast at a church gathering. Fr. Kallal denied "any moral misconduct or malicious intent" and was sent to Maryland for treatment. He was arrested shortly thereafter on two counts of aggravated indecent liberties with a child. A trial in September 2019, ended in a hung jury. Fr. Kallal was to be retried in Spring 2020. 

In a press conference held Wednesday, September 8, 2021, Bishop William Byrne of the Catholic Diocese of Springfield recognized the work of an Independent Task Force on the Diocese's response to sexual abuse. The Independent Task force spent over a year reviewing how the Springfield Diocese responded to allegations of clergy sexual abuse.

We appreciate this finding from the group. “The Task Force learned that a significant number of the ‘people in the pews’ are disillusioned by the diocese’s failure to communicate fully and accurately about the issue of clergy sexual abuse. In fact, many survivors said that the experience of having to deal with the diocese was more damaging to them than the actual sexual abuse.” Parishioners within this Diocese should be more than just disillusioned, they should be outraged. Abusive clerics baptized them, confirmed them, blessed them, married them, and buried their loved ones.

The opposition Democratic Coalition (DK) in Hungary recently called for a government committee to look into accusations of child sexual abuse within the Catholic Church.  DK deputy Leader Ágnes Vadai said in an online press conference that the committee should not just investigate individual cases, but should also work to expose “systemic shortcomings” within the Church.

We commend the DK for advocating for a secular investigation into the Church in a country where 62% of the population is Catholic. We echo the strong statement made by Leader Vadai, who noted that the Hungarian Catholic Bishops’ Conference had done nothing other than issue a single statement apologizing to the victims of sexual abuse. The lack of decisive action from the Hungarian bishops comes as no surprise for us since in our experience Catholic officials are always more concerned about covering up for their own "shepherds" rather than protecting and healing the vulnerable sheep. 

A little more than a month ago, when the Diocese of Fresno finally released its list of “credibly accused” clerics, Msgr. Craig Harrison’s name appeared on it. In a media statement following, SNAP demanded that the Diocese be more transparent about their findings, what they knew and when, as Harrison continued to repudiate these allegations. To us, refusing to acknowledge the external findings by the District Attorney and the findings of the Diocesan review board appeared to be just plain denial by Harrison.

Disgraced former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick appeared in court for an arraignment Friday morning at a court outside Boston using a walker. He entered a not guilty plea to charges filed a month ago, accusing him of sexually assaulting a teenage boy almost 50 years ago in Massachusetts. The judge ordered him to post a $5,000 bail and barred him from contacting the accuser, as well as anyone under the age of 18. The former Cardinal was also ordered to turn over his passport and was barred from traveling outside the United States.

It is no surprise to us that McCarrick apparently believes in his own innocence. In 2019, Slate Daily Magazine quoted the former Cardinal as  saying that he is “not as bad as they paint me.” The former Cardinal also said that he is the target of "enemies," and goes to confession every week. “I do not believe that I did the things that they accused me of,” he told Slate.

Disgraced former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick is due in court tomorrow where he will be arraigned on charges of sexually abusing a minor. This is a landmark moment in the fight against clergy abuse and we hope that this news will inspire vigilance among parishioners and change among church leaders.

For the first time, a high-ranking church official will stand trial on charges directly related to the abuse of children. While several priests have seen the inside of criminal courts in the past, to date the only prelate convicted of criminal charges has been former Kansas City Bishop Robert Finn who was convicted of misdemeanor failure to report. The case against McCarrick represents a large step forward in the efforts to hold church officials accountable for abuse and cover-up.

SNAP has recently learned that a former priest, Andrew Gabriel Encinas, who worked in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, is now listed as a Marriage and Family therapist in Pomona, CA. Encinas is named on the Archdiocese of Los Angeles website as a cleric with “substantiated” allegations of sexual misconduct with a child followed by removal from the clerical state.    

In a press release issued September 1, 2021, Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio announced the conclusion of an investigation into sexual abuse allegations made against him. A portion of the statement from DiMarzio’s attorney states, “ As the language of the decision stated, the allegations against Bishop DiMarzio have been found to have no semblance of truth.” Notably, Bishop DiMarzio did not offer one prayer for a single victim in his press release. This statement was clearly the preservation of his reputation in the plague-filled diocese.