NY--Victims blast new Rockville Centre bishop

For immediate release, December 9, 2016

Statement by David Clohessy of St. Louis, Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (314 566 9790cell, 314 645 5915 home, [email protected])

Allentown’s bishop shouldn’t be promoted, especially not to Long Island which has suffered under a terrible bishop for years.

Just three months ago, Rockville Centre’s new bishop lied – or let one of his staff lie – to parishioners. They were told Fr. John Stephen Mraz stepped down because of “medical issues.” In fact, he’d been caught with child pornography. (He’s expected to plead guilty.)

Yet neither Bishop John O. Barres nor any of his staff were disciplined or even apologized for leading their flock.

http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news2016/09_10/2016_09_17_Matt_Call_Should_Should.htm

Barres shouldn’t be promoted, especially not to Long Island which has suffered under a terrible bishop for years.

With a pending grand jury investigation into Pennsylvania Catholic officials, it seems odd and risky for Francis to promote Barres. For the sake of Long Island Catholics, parents and abuse victims, we hope more evidence doesn’t surface showing that Barres ignored or hid reports of child sex crimes. 

The Rockville Centre diocese is one of just a few in the US where priests who are accused of molesting two children are still on the job (Among the others: Tulsa’s Fr. Paul Eichhoff and St. Louis’ Fr. Alex Anderson.) It’s the only diocese, as best we can tell, where a priest facing two pending civil child sex abuse and cover up lawsuits. He is Fr. Gregory Yacyshyn. For the safety of kids and the sake of his accusers, Bishop Barres should immediately suspend this credibly accused child molesting cleric. http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news2016/05_06/2016_05_26_SNAP_cardinalMust.htm

Six years ago, we urged Barres to do outreach in an abuse case. As best we can tell, he ignored us.

http://www.snapnetwork.org/snap_statements/2010_statements/082710_ex_central_catholic_priest_made_teen_pregnant_lawsuit_says_snap_responds.htm

Regarding kids’ safety, Bishop William Murphy was among the very worst in the country. We hope Bishop Barres thoroughly “cleans house” in Rockville Centre and fires or demotes Murphy’s aides who either helped or did nothing while the boss concealed abuse reports.

No matter what church officials do or don’t do, we urge every single person who saw, suspected or suffered child sex crimes and cover ups in Catholic churches, schools or other institutions to protect kids by calling police, get help by calling therapists, expose wrongdoers by calling law enforcement, get justice by calling attorneys, and be comforted by calling support groups like ours. This is how kids will be safer, adults will recover, criminals will be prosecuted, cover ups will be deterred and the truth will surface.

NOTE - Barres’ name also surfaces in the once-secret files of Delaware predator priests.

http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news2012/01_02/2012_02_19_Osullivan_SECRETChurch.htm

(SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, is the world’s oldest and largest support group for clergy abuse victims. SNAP was founded in 1988 and has more than 20,000 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 (314-503-0003 cell, [email protected])