Clergy sex victims leaflet church

Two alleged predator priests worked there

A third was arrested for seeking sex in public

“If you were assaulted, speak up & get help,” group says

It wants Catholic bishop to list all accused clerics on website

It calls on church staff to “aggressively seek out” others who’ve been hurt

WHAT
As parishioners leave mass, clergy sex abuse victims and supporters will hand out leaflets. The fliers will urge local Catholics to
-- ask loved ones about three predator priests accused of sexual misdeeds who worked here, and
-- prod their Catholic officials to be more forthcoming about clergy sexual misconduct.

The group will also urge the Tampa-St. Pete bishop to
-- permanently post all the names of Tampa area child molesting clerics on his diocesan website. And
-- aggressively reach out to anyone with information about possible abuse by church employees.

They will also beg anyone who saw, suspected or suffered clergy sex crimes or cover ups to call police, get help, expose wrongdoers, protect others and start healing.

WHEN
Sunday, Jan. 9 at 11:30 a.m.

WHERE
Outside Christ the King Catholic Church, 821 South Dale Mabry Highway, Tampa, FL (813) 876-5628

WHO
5-7 members of a support group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPnetwork.org), and supporters, including a Chicago woman who is the organization’s founder and president

WHY
Three priests who are credibly accused of sexual misdeeds have worked at Christ the King. One of them has never been publicly accused before. Two of them allegedly molested kids. The third was arrested for adult misbehavior.

1) According to news accounts and a New York grand jury, Fr. Robert D. Huneke was accused of “relentlessly” abusing at least four boys. Huneke belonged to a religious order called the Marists. He also worked in Georgia and on Long Island. Huneke is now deceased.

http://www.bishop-accountability.org/ny-rockvillecentre/accused_priests.htm#huneke

2) Dozens of men in the Netherlands have accused Father Jan Sanders, a Dutch Jesuit, of molesting them as boys. Sanders also worked at Christ the King. Weeks ago, Christ the King’s current pastor put an announcement in his parish bulletin about the allegations against Sanders. (SNAP believes Sanders also later worked in a child care center for abandoned and poor vulnerable children in Santiago, Chile.)

3) Msgr. Norman G. Balthazar was charged with soliciting a lewd act from an undercover police officer in 1991. According to one news account, “a Hillsborough County judge threw out the case, ruling the conversation about engaging in a sexual act - did not constitute a crime.” Balthazar retired last year from heading Calvary Catholic Cemetery in Pinellas. He also worked at Our Lady of Fatima Catholic Church in Inverness and St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Zephyrhills.

Huneke was at Christ the King from 1979-1982 and Sanders was here in the 1980s. For a three year period, Huneke and Balthazar were both at Christ the King. Huneke died in 2002 and Sanders died in 1996.

SNAP worries that current and former parishioners here (and elsewhere in the Tampa St. Pete diocese) may have been hurt by these clerics. The group wants to offer support to them.

And to help protect the vulnerable and heal the wounded, SNAP wants Bishop Robert Lynch to do what 24 other bishops have done, and post on his website the names, whereabouts and priestly status of child molesting clerics who are or have been in the area. SNAP also wants him to work hard to find and help anyone who may have been hurt by these three priests.

According to a Boston-based independent research group called BishopAccountabilty.org, there are 19 publicly accused Tampa-St. Pete diocesan child molesting clerics. The actual number of Tampa area pedophile priests is likely much higher because BishopAccountability.org lists only those clerics against whom allegations have been lodged in the public domain – in civil lawsuits, criminal prosecution, church suspensions or news accounts.

In 2002, Baltimore became the first US diocese to disclose its predators’ names. A good current example is the Philadelphia archdiocese: http://archphila.org/protection/Updates/update_main.htm . Here is a list of all the dioceses that have disclosed names: http://www.bishop-accountability.org/AtAGlance/lists.htm .

DOCUMENTATION
The group will provide photos, articles, a settlement agreement with one of the priests, an e mail from a Tampa priest acknowledging allegations from one of the priests and a 10-page document outlining the allegations against one of the priests by the Jesuit provincial in the Netherlands. For more, see BishopAccountability.org

CONTACT
Barbara Blaine 312 399 4747, SNAPblaine@gmail.com
Martha Jean Lorenzo 727 512 1689
Toni/Joe McMorrow 240 353 7832