NH - Two clergy sex abuse cases settle
- Two clergy sex cases settle
- Victims urge bishop to do outreach
- On his 1 year anniversary, SNAP prods NH’s top Catholic official
- "Go beyond bare minimum," group says, “and visit predators’ parishes”
- “And put names of pedophile priests on your website,” support group begs
- SNAP: For kids’ safety & victims’ healing, “it’s the LEAST any Catholic diocese should do”
WHAT
Holding signs and childhood photos at a sidewalk news conference, a year after NH’s Catholic bishop was picked, clergy sex abuse victims and supporters will publicly
---disclose that two clergy sex abuse and cover up lawsuits against a NH priest have just settled,
---urge NH’s bishop to aggressively seek out other victims, witnesses, and whistleblowers of this child molesting cleric and others, and
----beg him to post on his diocesan website - like 30 other bishops have done - the names of proven, admitted and credibly accused pedophile priests (to help protect innocent kids and heal wounded victims).
WHEN
TODAY, Thursday September 12 at 2:15 PM
WHERE
Outside the Manchester Diocese headquarters (“chancery office”’), 153 Ash Street (between Orange and Myrtle) in downtown Manchester.
WHO
Three-four members of a support group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPnetwork.org), including a Missouri man whose brother is a predator priest and who is the organization’s long time director
WHY
Two civil lawsuits against a predator priest have just been settled by the Diocese of Manchester. The child molesting cleric is the now-deceased Fr. George St. Jean, who died in 1982, but has been accused multiple times of molesting NH kids during the 1960’s and 1970’s.
In May 2010, Plymouth NH resident John Labbe sued St. Jean for sexually assaulted him roughly 100 times as a boy in the 1960s, when St. Jean was assigned to the Shrine of Our Lady of Grace in Colebrook (Labbe was murdered in 2011.)
http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news2011/09_10/2011_09_09_Tracy_PlymouthShooting.htm
In July 2010, another man filed suit charging that St. Jean had also abused him at St. Brendan’s parish in Colebrook. The alleged victim, identified as John Doe, said the crimes happened when he was 11 and 12.
http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news2010/07_08/2010_07_21_Tuohy_NHMan.htm
In addition, according to a 2009 report from the NH Attorney General, St. Jean is also accused of molesting at least one child in Tyngsboro, Lowell or Dracut, MA.
“We hope that this settlement will help these victims with their healing and will encourage others who may have seen or suffered crimes by St. Jean or other NH priests to come forward,” said David Clohessy, SNAP Director.
For the first time, SNAP is also urging NH Bishop Peter Libasci (appointed to the NH post on 9/19/11) to permanently list on his diocesan website the names, photos and work histories of the 90+ proven, admitted and credibly accused NH child molesting clerics, so that kids will be safer, victims will feel vindicated, and the truth about NH clergy sex crimes and cover ups will be better revealed and understood.
“The need for Bishop Peter Libasci to do outreach in his diocese doesn’t diminish just because this predator is deceased,” said Clohessy. “By aggressively seeking out other victims, he can show he cares about children and victims and help deter future cover ups.”
Specifically, SNAP also wants Libasci to visit every parish where predator priests worked, prodding victims, witnesses and whistleblowers to step forward.
SNAP encourages anyone who may have information or suspicions about clergy sex abuse or cover ups in the Manchester diocese to come forward, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant they may think their information may be. They should call police and prosecutors, not church officials, SNAP says.
The formal names and case numbers of the two just-settled suits are: JOHN DOE v. DIOCESE OF MANCHESTER, STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE Case No. 226-2010-CV-00471, HILLSBOROUGH, SS. SUPERIOR COURT SOUTHERN DISTRICT and JOHN LABBE v. DIOCESE OF MANCHESTER , STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE Case No. 10-C-0464, HILLSBOROUGH, SS. SUPERIOR COURT SOUTHERN DISTRICT.
Both victims are represented by Miami attorney Jeffrey Herman (305 931 2200) who has handled hundreds of child sex abuse lawsuits across the US, mostly in churches and other institutional settings.
A photo of St. Jean is at BishopAccountability.org
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 2 comments
I remember everything that rapist in clerical garb did. I also know a lot more happened after he gave me a drink of water and I passed out with him laying up against me in a spooning fashion and masturbating me. I have horrifying freaking nightmares about it and another priests name keeps popping in my head named Desmond. I am wondering if Gaulin did not drug me with that water, so he and his disgusting perverted pedo buddies priests could have fun with me that night. I do know the next thing I remember was being in my social workers car, driving past Weeks Family Resturaunt and her asking me if I wanted some breakfast. I was so disgusted and scared I told her no. I barely talked to her during the trip to Teen Haven in Rochester. Right after that I became a freaking pyro, getting kicked out of Teen Haven for blowing up a truck.
I was a mess and it took me decades to overcome. I even thought I was so evil, because I know while Gaulin was raping me, forcing me to say pennance of Our Fathers and Hail Mary’s because I had broken the commandment of honoring my mother and father? I called myself Damien, the character of the Antichrist in the Omen movies and this in fact can be proven by my arrest record with the Daytona Beach Police Department in 1981 for burglaries of a conveyance and a dwelling…where under aliases you will see Damien and Zofo as my aliases.
Their damn lawyer lied too. He claimed I lied, but he twisted everything I said in the investigation hearing. Said something about the color of the church when I told him freaking twice that I was NEVER inside the church itself, I was brought into the lobby, then went through a doorway, turned left, went a short distance and then turned right into the bedroom, I even described the bedroom. I told that sob that I had NEVER been inside of the church, but because I got the color of the church wrong….he claimed that was one of the things that proved I was lying.
Then their disgusting lawyer stated another reason for my lying is because I claimed a Somersworth police officer drove me to the church in Durham after I had ran away from a fosterhome. I damn well know it was a cop who brought me there. I may have been wrong it was a Somersworth one, but I damn well know it was a cop who brought me there.
Peter filed to have the priests records released and a blueprint of the church and offices. Immediately their freaking disgusting lawyer filed a motion to dismiss based on Statue of Limitations. It was of course granted because the judge had no choice but to follow the law.
This disgusting Bishop Libasci hasn’t even acknowledged me. Yeah I trash their church, they are disgusting pedophile pimps….but I always acted with respect when I dealt with them face to face. I was more a man than they could ever dream of being.
So yeah, they won, Libasci won in a way. But I got my pride and my courage back and I still speak out against these scum Pedophile Pimps and Priests.