WA--“Missing” ex-WA abusive cleric “found” in Hawaii; Victims respond

For immediate release: Monday, Feb. 15, 2016

Statement by David Clohessy of St. Louis, Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (314 566 9790, [email protected])

An abusive Catholic cleric – who worked in Seattle and whose whereabouts were deemed “unknown” by Seattle church officials just weeks ago - is in Hawaii, the Los Angeles Times has disclosed. The revelation casts further doubt on Archbishop Peter Sartain’s claim that his staff worked years on putting together a list of predator priests.

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-seattle-serial-molester-20160212-story.html

The cleric is Brother Edward C. “Chris” Courtney. Though his church supervisors knew of his crimes as far back as the 1960s, they let keep teaching for years, into the 1980s, at parochial schools in MI, NY, IL and WA and at public schools in NV.

http://www.seattleweekly.com/home/952352-129/the-final-final-trial-of-edward

We urge Sartain to use pulpit announcements, parish bulletins, church websites and other tools to aggressively seek out others in Washington who saw, suspected or suffered crimes by Courtney or cover ups by his colleagues. He has molested dozens of kids. We firmly believe that an aggressive outreach effort by Sartain and his colleagues would bring forward a victim who is young enough to be able to prosecute this child molesting cleric.

SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, is the world’s oldest and largest support group for clergy abuse victims. SNAP was founded in 1988 and has more than 20,000 members. 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, [email protected]), Barbara Dorris (314-503-0003 cell, [email protected]), Barbara Blaine (312-399-4747, [email protected])

The Final Final Trial of Edward Courtney

For 30 years, the man of God molested students he was hired to teach and guide. Over and over he was accused, questioned, transferred, rehabilitated, and accused again. But he never truly paid for his sins.

By Rick Anderson, Seattle Weekly, May 6 2014

Edward Courtney’s cross-country, school-to-school, boy-to-boy journey lasted more than 30 years and scarred the lives of more victims than he could remember. But by the end of it, if it really ever ended, he still could not bring himself to say  . . .

Read full article here