Victims seek help from archbishop

Catholic prelate heads to national meeting next week

All US bishops will vote on “flawed” church sex abuse policy

Group tells Detroit’s Vigneron: “Take the lead in pushing reforms”

SNAP: “And tell where 2 local priest accused of sexual misdeeds are now”

At least two offenders were put at Jesuit church facility in a nearby suburb

WHAT
As parishioners leave mass, clergy molestation victims will hand out fliers urging Detroit Catholics to call their archbishop and beg him to
-- take the lead next week in strengthening the church’s “weak, vague” abuse policy, and
-- disclose the whereabouts of two priests accused in the last two years of sexual misconduct (one of whom is now in active ministry).

WHEN
Sunday, June 12 at11:30 a.m.

WHERE
Outside the Blessed Sacrament Cathedral, 9844 Woodward Ave, Detroit, MI

WHO
Three-six victims of childhood clergy sexual abuse who belong to SNAP (the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests), including a Missouri man who is the group’s long time director

WHY
Next week, America’s bishops will meet in Seattle and consider proposed changes to the church’s nine-year old child sex abuse policy (first adopted in Dallas in 2002). The purported “revisions” are being given little attention and “no major changes have been proposed," according to Religion News Service. SNAP believes dramatic reforms are needed to better protect the vulnerable and heal the wounded and that Detroit Archbishop Allen Vigneron should spearhead an effort to make such reforms.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2011-06-10-catholic-church-sex-abuse-reforms-review_n.htm

The group especially wants to see the church policy spell out harsh penalties for any church employee from custodian to cardinal who ignore or conceals child sex crimes. There are no such provisions now.

SNAP is also urging Vigneron to disclose where two accused sex offender priests are now.

Six months ago, Fr. Roger Knapp was returned to active ministry by the archdiocese after being sentenced to probation in 2009 for exposing himself in a restaurant. But church officials have not, as best SNAP can tell, made any public announcement about where he is assigned.

http://www.aodonline.org/AODOnline/News+++Publications+2203/Press+Releases+2303/2010+17543/101201Knapp.htm

http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news2009/05_06/2009_06_03_HarrisonMartiin_WoodhavenPriest.htm

(At the time of the sex charges against him, Knapp worked at St. Victor's in Gibraltar MI. While suspended, Knapp was at Manresa Jesuit Retreat House in Bloomfield Hills, according to The Detroit News, June 5, 2009.)

In January 2009, Fr. Kenneth Kaucheck was ousted from Guardian Angels parish in Clawson because of credible allegations he had molested a teen-aged girl. Again, the archdiocese has evidently told few or no parishioners where Kaucheck is now. SNAP believes he belongs in a remote, secure treatment center so that kids can be safer and so that he can get treatment. At some point , according to white pages.com, it appears that Kaucheck also was living at the Jesuit retreat center in Bloomfield Hills:

http://www.whitepages.com/dir/a-z/kaucheck/kenneth

SNAP feels that in both the Knapp and Kaucheck cases, Vigneron is violating his pledge last month to 'stay vigilant' in clergy sex cases:

http://www.themichigancatholic.com/2011/05/new-report-examines-%e2%80%98causes-and-context%e2%80%99-of-clergy-abuse/

CONTACT
SNAP director David Clohessy of St. Louis 314 566 9790 cell, Matt Jatczak of Detroit, SNAPdetroit@gmail.com 248-252-5410, Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, SNAP Outreach Director 314 862 7688, 314 503 0003 SNAPdorris@gmail.com