PA--Victims wish new PA bishop to better protect kids

For immediate release: Monday, July 13

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

We’re glad that a parish priest becomes Greensburg’s Catholic bishop today. We are skeptical, however, because every time a chancery office staffer or other church bureaucrat is promoted, those men are most likely to have seen, suspected or heard about clergy sex crimes and cover ups and kept them covered up.

We wish Bishop Edward Malesic luck. We hope he will be more forth-coming than his predecessors when it comes to clerics who commit or conceal heinous crimes against kids.

At least six Greensburg priests are publicly accused sex offenders: Fr. Dennis P. Dellamalva, Fr. Mark F.X. Gruber, Fr. Francis M. Lesniak, Fr. Gregory F. Premoshis, Fr. Roger A. Sinclair and Fr. Roger J. Trott. We urge Bishop Malesic to better protect the vulnerable and heal the wounded by posting these predators’ names, photos and whereabouts on church websites.

Roughly 30 US bishops have taken this simple, inexpensive, proven step toward preventing child sex crimes.

And we also call on Bishop Malesic to endorse, not oppose, a measure to reform Pennsylvania’s archaic, predator-friendly statute of limitations. Several states have adopted a one or two or three year “window” during which those who were abused as kids can expose their predators in the civil justice system. We beg Bishop Malesic to back this proposal so that more child molesters, in every walk of life, can be exposed and kept away from kids.

(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, S[email protected]), Barbara Dorris (314-503-0003 cell, [email protected]), Barbara Blaine (312-399-4747,[email protected])