Monday, April 7, 2008

SNAP response to Bishop Malone receiving religious education award

Statement by Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, Outreach Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (314 862 7688 home, 314 503 0003 cell)

A doctor's first job is to do no harm. A teacher's first job is to keep kids safe. Bishop Malone has failed in that most crucial task. It's tragic that a Catholic education group is now praising Malone.

It's also ironic. Malone's secrecy about one credibly accused child molester, Joseph Gilpin, allowed Gilpin to keep jobs in Florida public schools, where he molested other kids.

Just a few short years ago, the Catholic church's centuries-old child sex abuse and cover up finally hit national awareness as hundreds of predator priests and their corrupt supervisors were exposed in Boston. Malone was a high-ranking chancery official throughout many of those crimes and cover ups. Are our memories so short that we've forgotten this already?

(SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, is the nation's oldest and largest support group for clergy abuse victims. We've been around for 17 years and have more than 7,000 members across the country. 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 (314-566-9790 cell, 314-645-5915 home), Barbara Blaine (312-399-4747), Barbara Dorris (314-862-7688), Mary Grant (626-419-2930), Mark Serrano (703-727-4940)

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Catholic bishop receives religious education award

By Ann S. Kim
Portland Press Herald Staff Writer
April 07, 2008

PORTLAND — Bishop Richard Malone of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland is being honored with a national award for religious education.

Malone is receiving the 2008 F. Sadlier Dinger Award tonight in Houston at the National Conference for Catechetical Leadership Conference and Exposition.

The bishop is being recognized for his work as a parish priest, a high school teacher, a college professor and chaplain, in educational leadership positions at the Archdiocese of Boston and as the church's bishop in Maine, according to the diocese.

http://news.mainetoday.com/updates/024953.htm