Group is upset about accused priests

They hurt kids at three Montana locations

Last month, dozens of cases against Catholic clerics were settled

But local Catholic officials essentially “do nothing,” SNAP says

State’s two prelates should disclose who & where the predators were & are

Self help organization wants church to “reach out” to those “suffering in silence”

And it urges both of the state’s bishops to post names of pedophile priests on websites

WHAT:
Holding signs and childhood photos at a sidewalk news conference, advocates for clergy sex abuse victims will urge Montana’s two Catholic bishops to
-- work hard to find and help others hurt by two Catholic predator priests, and
-- post on their websites the names, whereabouts, photos and work histories of all proven, admitted and credibly accused child molesting clerics who live/lived or work/worked in the state.

They will also ask citizens and Catholics to ask their loved ones if they were victimized and, if so, to come forward, get help, call police, expose wrongdoing, protect kids and start recovering.

WHO:
A Missouri couple who are leaders of an international support group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPnetwork.org)

WHEN:
Tuesday. April 19 at 11 am.

WHERE:
Outside St Patrick's Catholic Co- Cathedral, 215 North 31st Street, Billings, MT

WHY:
Last month, dozens of child sexual abuse cases against Jesuit Catholic priests were settled. According to news accounts, Jesuits molested kids at three Montana locations - St. Ignatius Mission in St. Ignatius, St. Paul’s Mission in Hays; and St. Labre Mission in Ashland.

At least two accused Jesuits -- Fr. Augustine J. “Freddy” Ferreti and Fr. Bernard “Barney” McMeel worked in Montana..

http://www.bishopaccountability.org/assign/Ferretti_Augustine_J_sj.htm

http://bishop-accountability.org/member/psearch.jsp

McMeel is one accused Jesuit who worked in the Great Falls-Billing diocese. http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news2006/01_02/2006_02_10_Kline_LawsuitAlleges.htm

According to the suit, McMeel was born in Great Falls in 1921. He was ordained a Jesuit priest in 1954 and first moved to Alaska in 1955, where he served as the first principal of Monroe Catholic High School in Fairbanks.

The Anchorage law firm of Cooke, Roosa & Valcarce represented McMeel’s alleged victim. A Montana newspaper reported that “McMeel served in Alaska before he was reassigned to St. Paul's Mission Church in Hays from 1978 until his death in 1992".

Starting in 2008, several women (and at least one man), filed civil filed lawsuits charging that Ferreti sexually abused them in the 1970s. Ferriti also worked in these Montana towns: Arlee, Jocko, Big Sandy, Box Elder and Dixon. He also worked in Spokane WA, Seattle WA, Washington DC, and three Idaho towns.

http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news2011/03_04/2011_03_25_KOMO_NwJesuits.htm

SNAP believes that if Catholic officials put forth “any real effort,” younger victims might step forward and enable law enforcement to prosecute and imprison some of the child molesting Catholic clerics who are now free.

http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news2011/03_04/2011_03_26_TheTelegraph_JesuitsPay.htm

Bishops often try to distance themselves from pedophile priests who belong to religious orders. But SNAP believes that Catholic prelates have a duty to protect their flock and aggressively seek out others who saw, suspected or suffered abuse, no matter which church official signed the predator’s paychecks.

For the sake of public safety, SNAP also wants Montana’s 2 bishops to post on their websites the names, whereabouts and work histories of the proven, admitted and credibly accused child molesting clerics. Roughly 24 other US bishops have posted on their websites the names, and priestly status of child molesting clerics who are or have been in their dioceses.

According to a Boston-based independent research group called BishopAccountabilty.org, there are 4 publicly accused Montana predator priests in the state’s two dioceses: Helena and Billings/Great Falls

http://www.dioceseofgfb.org/

SNAP notes that the actual number of Montana 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 or news accounts.

In 2002, Baltimore became the first US diocese to disclose names. A more recent 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

SNAP is the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. Its website is SNAPnetwork.org. BishopAccountability.org is an online library of documents and data pertaining to the sexual abuse crisis in the Catholic Church. Its website is www.bishopaccountability.org .

CONTACT
Judy Jones 636-433-2511/314-974-5003 cell, SNAPjudy@gmail.com), David Clohessy (314-566-9790 cell, SNAPclohessy@aol.com), Barbara Dorris 314 862 7688 home, 314 503 0003 cell