Rome--Vatican admits 2 child porn cases in Vatican itself

For immediate release: Saturday, Jan. 31

Statement by Joelle Casteix of Newport Beach CA, western regional director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (949 322 7434, [email protected])

For at least a month-and more likely several months-top Catholic officials have kept silent about a child porn case in the Vatican itself, again showing that secrecy is still the norm in clergy sex cases.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/01/31/us-vatican-childpornography-idUSKBN0L40H020150131   

Telling the public about current child sex cases is the best and quickest way Catholic officials can help parents protect their kids and help police and prosecutors pursue predators. And keeping credible accusations hidden gives criminals more chances to destroy evidence, intimidate victims, threaten whistleblowers, discredit witnesses and even flee the country.

This information surfaced in an annual report given by a Vatican bureaucrat (Gian Piero Milano). That’s just wrong.

There’s simply no excuse for information about possible child sex crimes – especially crimes that could be prosecuted – to be kept concealed. And there’s only one reason to do so – to protect those who commit and those who conceal these heinous crimes.

If Vatican officials can’t bring themselves to promptly and publicly disclose current child sex crimes within their own walls, there’s virtually no chance that Vatican officials will force the world’s 3,000 bishops to end their continuing and selfish secrecy in this scandal.

Where is this person who allegedly had child pornography in the Vatican? Is he still on the job? Did church officials tell law enforcement? Was he quietly shuffled off to work elsewhere?

The Catholic hierarchy admits that 100,000 US kids were sexually assaulted by priests. But the US is only four percent of the world’s population. So it’s pretty clear that more than one million children across the globe have been raped, sodomized or molested by priests.

Yet now, in 2015, one high ranking Catholic official quietly discloses one case of child sex crimes within Vatican walls and refuses to even identify the criminal or tell us if the police were called? Shameful.

Vatican officials claim that the arrest of Archbishop Josef Wesolowski, the first inside the Vatican related to allegations of sexual abuse, in order to send a strong signal that even high-ranking Church officials would be held accountable. We dispute this claim. We believe that Wesolowski’s case is being handled internally by church figures for public relations reasons – to give the impression of “getting tough” while actually concealing cover ups and minimizing publicity.

(SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, is the world’s oldest and largest support group for clergy abuse victims. We were founded in 1988 and have 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 +1 314-566-9790, [email protected], Barbara Dorris +1 314-503-0003, [email protected], Barbara Blaine +1 312-399-4747, [email protected]