Statement by SNAP on Bishop Braxton

STATEMENT By Barbara Dorris of SNAP (314 503 0003 cell, 314 862 7688 home)

We’ve asked Braxton to meet with us.

We’ve asked Braxton to warn people about Fr. Bourque.

We’ve asked Braxton to not appeal the Fr. Kownacki case.

We’ve asked Braxton to not appeal the Fr. Roberts case.

We’ve asked Braxton to post names of predators on his website.

We’ve asked Braxton to put them in treatment centers.

Now, we’re asking Braxton to do something even simpler, easier and cheaper: just disclose their whereabouts.

And we’re going above his head, appealing to a national Catholic panel to lean on him to be the pastor and shepherd he claims to be.

What we simply can’t accept is Braxton doing nothing except excessively and expensively defending proven predators and corrupt colleagues.

Belleville victims and Catholics and citizens deserve better.

They deserve to know who and where predator priests are.

They deserve to have these predators in treatment centers.

They deserve genuine, repeated outreach to their victims.

We’re neither going away nor giving up.

Even if the National Review Board ignores us too, we’ll keep pushing until Braxton begins to act more like a warm-hearted shepherd and less like a cold-hearted CEO.

(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)

For more info: David Clohessy 314 566 9790