Shame on Providence Bishop Thomas Tobin. He got a credible report of sexual abuse by Fr. Timothy Gordon and kept it secret, just like bishops have done for decades.

We are here today representing three different groups who want a Board member of Loyola University’s Board of Trustees to resign. The three groups are SNAP, Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, CCC, Coalition of Concerned Catholics and VOTF, Voice of the Faithful.

The decision today by the Baltimore jury that found Pastor Leon Jones guilty of eight counts of child sexual abuse is one step towards healing the pain that his young victim has suffered. We hope that anyone else who may have been a victim of Jones’ crimes are emboldened by this decision and come forward to police and prosecutors. 

We applaud the Kansas Board of Education for revoking the teaching license of woman who delayed in reporting suspected child sex crimes to law enforcement.

This is an extremely disturbing case, and we are glad that Randolph King is now behind bars where he cannot hurt more children. At the same time, we are disgusted that it took three days for the police to be called in to investigate.

Yesterday, a Jesuit cleric resigned from a college board under pressure because he did little or nothing to stop a prominent Chicago priest from molesting dozens of children.

The Intelligencer reports that tomorrow (Friday), a West Virginia judge will rule on whether a West Virginia priest, Fr. Kevin Quirk, must testify in a high-profile clergy sex abuse and cover up case going on in Philadelphia.

Cases like these serve as painful reminder that sexual abuse is not only perpetrated against children, but can affect vulnerable adults as well. We hope that the arrest of Fr. Scheer will help encourage anyone else who may have seen suspected or suffered any misdeeds by Scheer - or other clergy - to step forward, get help, expose wrongdoing and protct others.

We’re disappointed that Bishop Bransfield is:

• apparently still not forcing his priest, Fr. Kevin Quirk, to testify at the trial in Philadelphia (as requested by prosecutors),
• has issued a written statement, instead of taking questions openly, about the child sex allegations against him,
• is apparently ignoring the allegation that he had a “lewd conversation” with a child,
• refusing to answer the allegation that he brought kids to the beach house he owns
• is only now making statements, seven years after it was first disclosed, about his alleged ownership of property with a child-molesting cleric, and
• continues to attack the judicial system and the judge and prosecutors in Philadelphia, especially since this is a trial that he has not attended. He apparently feels comfortable, from a distance, calling it a “circus.” But yesterday, he refused (through his lawyers) to respond to sworn testimony from that trial (he called the testimony “rumors.”)

For the first time in the history of the Sacramento Catholic diocese, a judge has ruled that two adults can seek punitive damages in a clergy sex abuse and cover up case involving a priest who is now a fugitive from justice.

Two groups involved in the Catholic  church's child sex abuse and cover up scandal are urging Pittsburgh's bishop to put a just-suspended priest in a treatment center.

Statement by Becky Ianni Washington, DC/Virginia SNAP Director, SNAPVirginia@cox.net,  703-801-6044