FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
December 3, 2006

Contacts:
Paul Steidler, SNAP Spokesman, cell: 703-217-9452
Mark Serrano, SNAP Board Member, cell: 703-727-4940

Clergy Abuse Survivors Warn Northern Virginia Neighbors About Notorious and Credibly Accused Sexual Predator

Ed Dudzinski, Ex-Priest & Youth Coach Just Identified by Catholic Bishop;

Advocates Voice Concern for Possible Current Victims

Herndon, VA/December 3, 2006 - Clergy abuse survivors and their supporters today conducted a community notification about the presence of Edward Dudzinski, a notorious and very credibly accused child molester, in his Herndon, Virginia neighborhood. The neighborhood leafleting and outreach was conducted two weeks after the Catholic Diocese of Wilmington, Delaware identified Dudzinski and other priests among those the diocese has "received 'admitted, corroborated or otherwise substantiated' allegations of sexual abuse of minors."

In 2003, the Virginia Board of Counseling forced Dudzinski, now in his mid-50's, to forfeit his license to counsel children, which he had done as a youth counselor for Fairfax County. Among other matters, the Board determined that Dudzinski had a minor in bed with him. Despite the claims against Dudzinski, and having been removed from Catholic ministry in 1985 because of claims reported to the church, Dudzinski has not been prosecuted for the sexual abuse allegations against him and cannot be registered as a sex offender.

Among other clergy abuse survivors and their supporters conducting the leafleting today was a retired law enforcement officer from Washington, DC and Fairfax County, Virginia who first alerted the Virginia Board of Counseling about Dudzinski.

Commenting on the importance of the community notification was a Board Member of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), Mark Serrano, said:

"Edward Dudzinski was shielded from prosecution by his Catholic Bishop in the 1980's and that is why he is not a registered sex offender, and why he remains both anonymous and dangerous in his own suburban neighborhood today. We are here today to protect children from a notorious sex offender."

Noting how repeated appeals for action from Arlington Bishop Paul Loverde regarding Dudzinski went unanswered for the past year was Paul Steidler, a spokesman for SNAP, said:

"We have requested action from Arlington Bishop Paul Loverde through three letters to him in the past year, seeking his support in notifying the local schools and churches about Edward Dudzinski, but like the Delaware Bishop in the 1980's, Bishop Loverde has turned a deaf ear to the dangers of a sexual predator who has had numerous victims. Being involved in youth sports and hosting tenants including a ten-year old boy with the boy's mother suggests this dangerous sexual predator may be perpetrating his crimes today right here in Herndon. The good people of Herndon deserve better from Bishop Loverde."

SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests) is an independent, 7,500- member, self-help group of men and women who were sexually victimized by clergy (priests, bishops, nuns, brothers and other church employees and officials). It is based in Chicago and its website is www.snapnetwork.org.

# # #